Driving Better Health Outcomes for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AsA-NHPI)

CARE seeks to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AsA-NHPI) by increasing knowledge, empowering education, and positively impacting their clinical care.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AsA-NHPI) populations are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, representing 25% of all foreign-born people in the United States. They are projected to reach nearly 34 million by 2050.  

Similar to other communities of color, there exist tremendous disparities in health outcomes and indicators among the AsA-NHPI community. Disproportionate burdens of health conditions affecting this population across the United States include cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis B, and osteoporosis.

National-level data indicate that cancer is the leading cause of death among AsA-NHP populations. Socioeconomic, cultural, and genetic factors likely affect their health. There is a strong need to improve knowledge, education, and clinical care to reduce healthcare disparities among Asian subgroups.

The Center will provide a common place for research, education, and clinical care support, allowing disparate faculty, staff, community members, and trainees to share ideas and common resources. Currently, there is a lack of resources and community. In particular, given the nature of AsA-NHPI health research, multi-disciplinary groups are needed. At Stanford, no other centers are significantly investigating and developing educational/clinical care for AsA-NHPI populations. Stanford has advantages over other universities in this area of health research, education, and care due to unique patient, faculty/staff, and student demographics, as well as disease, epidemiologic/health economics, and humanities expertise.

Our goals are:

  1. To increase research and knowledge in Asian and Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health.
  2. To educate patients, providers, and the community about the health needs of Asians and Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
  3. To improve the culturally sensitive and evidence-based delivery of healthcare to Asians and Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.