Everyone has a right to health care, and that means providing effective preventative health care programs to those who have gone without. Doing so helps address smaller health issues so they are less likely to spiral into larger ones.
That’s the motto behind the South Asian Community Health Initiative (SACHI) at JFK University Medical Center. The program—the brainchild of pulmonologist Kishore Ratkalkar, M.D., FCCP, president of the medical staff at Raritan Bay Medical Center—will enable JFK to offer health fairs, community health screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, stroke risk and other health markers, and other health educational programs to the South Asian community.
“I felt there was a need to identify health inequities within the South Asian community and to offer culturally appropriate care by removing common barriers to health care,” says Dr. Ratkalkar, who personally donated $50,000 to the JFK University Medical Center Foundation’s SACHI Fund. Other recent donations include $100,000 from the New Jersey American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (NJAAPI).
“Early intervention and prevention is key,” says Atul Prakash, M.D., FRCP, FACC, FHRS, president of NJ State AAPI and a cardiologist and electrophysiologist. The SACHI program will hire a consultant to identify the South Asian community’s health needs as well as a dedicated patient navigator who will connect those who need medical care or access to other resources to address social barriers to care, such as food and housing insecurity. “It is our duty to try to bridge the gap,” Dr. Prakash says.
Donations to support SACHI ensure that all South Asians have equal access to health care. “Many people cannot pursue health care because of barriers such as language differences and a lack of familiarity with the health care system,” says Sheri A. Marino, MA, CCC-SLP, executive director of the JFK University Medical Center Foundation. “Our goal is to remove these barriers to make health care accessible to all South Asian members of the community.”
Dr. Ratkalkar is grateful to all who have helped make SACHI happen through generous donations, including those from Dr. Prakash and NJAAPI. “Together we are motivated, and we appreciate that JFK is doing this to achieve our objectives through SACHI,” he says.
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