Dr. Damé Idossa in the Department of Medicinine spoke to MinnPost about the health disparities impacting Black women with breast cancer, who face a 40% higher mortality rate than white women in the U.S. Dr. Idossa says she is working on increasing the enrollment of Black women in clinical trials that often have the newest treatments, which ultimately leads to more people of those backgrounds being able to consider the treatment as a viable option. “When I am seeing a patient, a Black woman in my clinic, and they’re asking me, ‘Is this applicable to me?’ Meaning, are the findings generalizable?” she said. 

In Minnesota, breast cancer is among the top five causes of death for women. The higher likelihood of death for Black women is due to socioeconomic barriers and social determinants of health. Dr. Idossa said that the gaps have been widening throughout the years, and support is needed to share information about breast cancer and increase knowledge and detection as patients go through their journeys. 

Dr. Idossa’s goal is to improve the systematic errors within our society.

Read more here.