by Bill Snyder
A computer-based method developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that scans electronic medical records (EMRs) for genetic contributors to disease has been used for the first time to reveal the impact of race on health.
The PheWAS (phenome-wide association study) identified race as an important risk factor in an "astounding breadth" of diagnoses and conditions, the researchers reported recently in the Journal of the National Medical Association.
"Our study confirms the broad range of diseases that have higher prevalence among Black people. A number of these diseases could impact the immune system and increase the risk of COVID-19," said the paper's corresponding author, Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, professor of Medicine and Vice President for Health Equity at VUMC.
"This means we should be ensuring that people at increased risk of COVID-19 have access to testing and care and be included in clinical trials," said Wilkins, who also is associate dean for Health Equity in the School of Medicine.
"Most important, this study is about race, not genetics," she cautioned. Socioeconomic factors and lack of access to health care are important contributors to racial disparities in the incidence and severity of a wide range of health conditions.
"We're very hopeful that this type of analysis, while so distressing, will begin to call more attention to those under-researched diseases with substantial disparity, and that we can design new research support programs to help researchers pursue these focus areas," said Jill Pulley
