In this webinar, Marvella E. Ford, PhD, discussed the current incidence and mortality rates for COVID-19 infections in the US. She also described the racial and ethnic disparities in these outcomes. South Carolina was used as a case study. The webinar concluded with a presentation of models of the social determinants of health disparities in the US and a discussion of how these factors contribute to the disparities in COVID-19 infections in the US.

Dr. Marvella Ford Bio.
Dr. Ford received her MSW, MS, PhD, and postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI where she was awarded pre- and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institute on Aging. Subsequently, she held faculty positions at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI and Baylor College of Medicine before coming to MUSC and the Hollings Cancer Center. Her training in the social determinants of health affecting disease and its treatment has uniquely positioned her to take a leading role in tackling a distressing and incompletely understood public health problem in the state: the fact that societal differences in the population can lead to markedly different health outcomes for members of diverse racial and ethnic groups.

An overarching goal of Dr. Ford’s current research is to identify and address the disparities in cancer diagnosis and treatment success due to age, race, geography and other contextual and/or socioeconomic factors. To that end, she is the leader on several projects examining behavioral and community engagement factors affecting resource utilization, access to care and clinical trial recruitment and retention of members of underserved populations in the state. Understanding of these factors in turn informs her other efforts to help design and disseminate effective strategies for enhancing patient education and decision making between underserved patients and their care providers.

In her other research projects, Dr. Ford applies her public health expertise towards the definition of population-specific and innate genetic, metabolic and physiologic factors that determine cancer diagnosis, progression, and treatment outcomes, primarily in older adults. Working with Dr. David P. Turner, these latter studies include the study of a specific set of inflammatory nutritional metabolites known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Exploring the linkage between population-specific and differential AGE levels as a possible contributor to disparate outcomes is a focal point of the translational NIH/NCI-funded U54 Cancer Disparities Research Center (SC CADRE) co-led by Dr. Ford at MUSC and by Dr. Judith D. Salley at South Carolina State University.