Despite recognition of valvular heart disease (VHD) as a major global public health program and marked disparities in access to diagnosis and treatment across racial and ethnic groups, "considerations of race and ethnicity have not taken center stage in VHD research," according to a new review paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology as part of a nine-part Focused Seminar series on racism and health equity.

"The past decade has seen major breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of [VHD]," according to Catherine M. Otto, MD, FACC, et al. "... However, there is mounting evidence that inequitable access to health care has systematically prevented racial and ethnic minorities from fully benefiting from these advancements."

As part of the paper, Otto and colleagues offer a review of the differences in the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of VHD within the context of race, ethnicity and health care disparities. They also propose ideas for future research that address barriers to diagnosis and treatment among various racial and ethnic minority groups. Among their three main ideas: 1) "high-quality studies using representative samples of the population ... to assess the prevalence of calcific valve disease across racial and ethnic groups;" 2) identifying approaches to guarantee equitable access to echocardiography; and 3) incorporation of implementation science methods into VHD research in order to systematically identify and overcome barriers to access to medical treatment and surgical and transcatheter therapies among racial and ethnic minorities.

"The current unacceptably low rates of surgical and transcatheter interventions among racial and ethnic minorities should be a call to action to put health care disparities at the forefront of VHD research and care," the authors said.

Clinical Topics: Arrhythmias and Clinical EP, Cardiovascular Care Team, COVID-19 Hub, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies, Noninvasive Imaging, Prevention, Valvular Heart Disease, Atherosclerotic Disease (CAD/PAD), Implantable Devices, SCD/Ventricular Arrhythmias, Atrial Fibrillation/Supraventricular Arrhythmias, Acute Heart Failure, Echocardiography/Ultrasound, Hypertension, Sleep Apnea

Keywords: Cardiology, Prejudice, Racism, Selection Bias, African Americans, Algorithms, Asian Americans, Atrial Fibrillation, Bariatric Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Dilated, Benchmarking, Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Cardiovascular Diseases, Community Health Services, Coronary Artery Disease, COVID-19, Cultural Competency, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Defibrillators, Implantable, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dementia, Echocardiography, Economic Status, Sexual and Gender Minorities, Ethnic Groups, Evidence-Based Medicine, Food Insecurity, Glycated Hemoglobin A, Health Care Costs, Health Equity, Health Personnel, Healthcare Disparities, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Heart Valve Diseases, Hospitals, Hispanic Americans, Heart Failure, Housing, Hypertension, Implementation Science, Insurance, Insurance Coverage, Minority Groups, Motivation, Morbidity, Obesity, Organizational Objectives, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, Patient Discharge, Patient-Centered Care, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Prescriptions, Policy, Prevalence, Public Health, Quality Improvement, Reference Standards, Registries, Religion, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Reward, Risk Factors, Social Determinants of Health, Social Justice, Social Responsibility, Stroke, Survival Rate, Telemedicine, Telemedicine, Treatment Outcome, Trust, Violence, Violence, Workforce

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