Beyond the Diagnosis: Eliminating Health Disparities Summit

The Beyond the Diagnosis: Eliminating Health Disparities Summit happens this Friday, Oct. 16, from 4 to 8 PM at Sanctuary Covenant Church, 2018 Aldrich Ave. N. in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Health Department is convening it to look at health disparities and the lived experiences of the city's Black and African American communities, bringing together residents, healthcare providers, and public health professionals in one room.

The summit centers on four specific areas: heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and sickle cell disease. To build the conversation, the organizers put out a call for panelists—community members with lived experience of heart disease or prostate cancer, speaking alongside physicians and clinicians. The panels will cover patient and family experiences, the barriers people face when trying to get care, and ways to reduce health disparities.

It's a broad mix of voices: people who've lived through these illnesses, the doctors who treat them, and the public health professionals working on the systemic side. Having those perspectives in the same space is the whole point—hearing the patient's story next to the clinician's view of the same problem.

If you're coming with kids, childcare is available at the venue starting at 5:30 PM. The summit runs from 4 to 8 PM on Friday, Oct. 16, at Sanctuary Covenant Church, 2018 Aldrich Ave. N.