Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHPI) individuals are often aggregated with Asian individuals in medical research. However, there are important distinctions between these populations that are underappreciated by the greater research community. NHPI and Asian individuals have very different health disparities, and by grouping these two racial groups, NHPI health disparities are often masked. Dr. Kekoa Taparra, MD, Ph.D., will discuss the importance of data disaggregation and the inclusion of NHPI patients in medical research to combat systemic racism.
Kekoa Taparra, MD Ph.D., is a Native Hawaiian radiation oncology physician-scientist trainee at Stanford Medicine. He was born and raised in Hawaiʻi and graduated from the Kamehameha Schools. He completed his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and MD at Mayo Clinic. His research has been published in the Lancet, JAMA, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Health Form, and JCO Oncology Practice on research topics including Pacific Islander health disparities, physician workforce representation, access to cancer care, and the impact of cancer healthcare costs on cancer survival. His life mission is to return home to the islands to provide high-quality cancer care to Hawaiʻi’s multicultural communities.