Hispanic Health Disparities Research at UTEP
UTEP has for many years focused on health disparities research initiatives, and the UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center has been the epicenter for biomedical research by providing shared equipment and services to UTEP faculty and students. However, isolated groups of investigators will not solve health disparities; the problems are too complex and expansive and require understanding the intersection of multiple variables at deep levels of integration and sophistication. With this in mind, UTEP completed the construction of a new Interdisciplinary Research Building (IDRB), which includes an Imaging and Behavioral Neuroscience Facility for Hispanic health disparities research.
UTEP is expanding further interdisciplinary research initiatives through its comprehensive Center for Integrative and Translational Research (CITR) housed in the IDRB. The CITR will include multiple areas of research focus, and entail interdisciplinary collaborations across UTEP Colleges and Schools in order to study the health, culture and well-being of Hispanics in the Borderplex and the United States as shown in the figure below. The CITR will focus on developing research initiatives to address critical issues in the Hispanic demographic including: Cancer Health Disparities, Cardiometabolic and Brain Health, Environmental Health Disparities, Hispanic Healthspan, and Infectious Diseases disparities.