The Association of Black Cardiologists: A Small-Group Success Story in Addressing Healthcare Disparities

Abstract

Thirty-six years ago, Richard Allen Williams, M.D., founded an organization consisting primarily of African American cardiologists, and named it the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) at its inaugural meeting in Dallas, Texas. The year was 1974. He was joined in this effort by a small number of other black cardiologists who were attending the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association. All agreed that the cardiovascular needs of blacks were unmet and were not being adequately addressed by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and other prominent medical groups. Despite the fact that hypertension was recognized as a disease that disproportionately affected the African American population, little was being done to increase awareness of this fact or to bring blacks to medical attention. In addition, stroke, often a consequence of hypertension, was uncontrolled, with catastrophic effects in blacks, and coronary heart disease was not generally believed to be an important problem in this population. The ABC was also concerned about the shortage of African Americans trained to treat cardiovascular disease, and one of its objectives was and continues to be to spur efforts to increase the number of African American cardiologists. With almost no funding and very little moral support, we managed to create an energetic, innovative, efficient, and fiscally sound organization, which is regarded as a model that is arguably the best small minority medical group in the country. Those bragging rights are based upon the impact of a number of community-based programs, which have allowed patients to benefit from the knowledge possessed by professional members and advocates trained by the member cardiologists of ABC. This chapter details some of those programs that represent outreach into the African American communities with the mission of decreasing cardiovascular healthcare disparities among people of color (African Americans).