MetroHealth is hosting a Minority Men's Health Fair.
At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Charles Modlin has spent more than three decades caring for the people of Cleveland.
He is now the first Medical Director of Metrohealth Medical Center's Office of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. It's a job that perfectly complements his yearly event, The Minority Men's Health Fair.
"I had a duty to do what I could, and what our medical institution could do," Modlin said, "to address a lot of these horrible health inequalities and health inequities."
Modlin started the health fair in 2003 to provide free tests and evaluations to African American and other minority males.
Early diagnosis of avoidable illnesses, he claims, lowers mortality rates. He described the event as a "first step" in addressing health disparities that disproportionately affect men of colour.
"Prostate cancer strikes black males twice as frequently as it strikes white men, and black men die twice as often as white men." "According to Modlin. "They have greater rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, renal disease, the list goes on and on, and these healthcare inequities bear out to the fact that African American males, on average, live four to six years less than their white male counterparts."
More than 500 MetroHealth employees and clinicians have volunteered to assist at the health fair, according to Modlin.
"We have dermatologists for skin exams, ophthalmologists for eye exams, head and neck surgeons for head and neck surgeries, dentists for all oral examinations, cardiologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, urologists, nephrologists, allergists, endocrinologists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons." He said, "I say we're going to have every 'ologist' under the sun here."
Since it began 17 years ago, more than 16,000 men have visited the Minority Men's Health Fair, including Reverend Clinton Hickman and Pastor Timothy Eppinger, who stated the event altered their lives.
"I discovered not only that I had hypertension, but also that I have a sugar issue that first year." "I weighed 270 pounds," Eppinger said.
"I discovered out I had prostate cancer, and visiting the health fair allowed me to understand more about my condition," Hickman said.
The two have been spreading the word about the Minority Men's Health Fair and its advantages to their churches and communities.
"We'll take them to see a movie and have supper with them." Let's take them to a screening so you can get some answers and enjoy some fresh air. That's what we've been trying to sell them on. Let's take them someplace, but not just anywhere, but somewhere significant "Eppinger said.
Some of the guests are Modlin's patients, while others are not, but most will tell him that visiting the expo has impacted their lives in some manner.
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