The Wayne State University School of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, will present "Urban Cardiology: Disparities in Cardiovascular Care" on April 30.

The conference is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel.

"By now, most physicians have been made aware of health care disparities based on geography, race, economics and gender," said Kim Williams Sr., M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.H.A., F.A.S.N.C., the Dorothy Susan Timmis professor and Chair of the WSU Division of Cardiology.  "Cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, heart disease and stroke, remain leading causes of death in the United States. Each of these has a higher prevalence, morbidity, and mortality in African-Americans. Over the past 40 years, great strides have been made in cardiovascular diagnosis, therapy and access to care, resulting in decreased mortality from these diseases. However, African-Americans in the United States have had less of a decline, resulting in a widening gap, estimated at 42 percent 'excess deaths' when compared with whites. Similar disparities exist in the Hispanic population, albeit with a differing distribution of risk factors."

Dr. Williams said that Wayne County has one of the highest rates of cardiovascular mortality in the nation, perhaps due to racial and economic disparities in the region.

Published research shows that African-Americans receive less angiography and less revascularization. When revascularization is performed, fewer drug eluting stents are used. Disparities such as these, he said, need to be addressed with education with respect to appropriate use of imaging, invasive and arrhythmia services.

To that end, the conference will present the state of the art in risk factors, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in an interactive symposium with what Dr. Williams called "an all-star cast of faculty," who will focus on the disparities and strategies for their elimination.

The lineup of topics and speakers includes:

* "Healthcare Disparities and Healthcare Reform," 8:10 a.m., Brian Smedley, Ph.D., vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

* "Treatment of Hypertension," 8:50 a.m., John Flack, M.D., Ph.D., WSU professor of Medicine and Physiology, and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine.

* "Treatment of Dyslipidemia," 9:20 a.m., Joel Kahn, M.D., WSU clinical assistant professor of Internal Medicine.

* "Treatment of Diabetes," 10 a.m., Berhane Seyoum, M.D., M.P.H., WSU clinical assistant professor of Internal Medicine.

* "Smoking Cessation and Obesity," 10:30 a.m., Tochi Okwuosa, D.O., WSU assistant professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and director of Preventive Cardiology.

* "Genomics and Cardiovascular Risk Factors," 11 a.m., Brian Ference, M.D., MPhil., MSc., WSU assistant professor of Medicine, associate chief of the Division of Translational Research and Clinical Epidemiology and director of the Cardiovascular Genomic Research Center.

* "Advances in Echocardiography/MRI," 12:30 p.m., Julie Kovach, M.D., WSU associate professor of WSU Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and co-director of Adult Congenital Heart Disease.

* "Advances in Nuclear/CT," 1 p.m., Kim Williams Sr., WSU professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiology.

* "Peripheral Artery Disease," 1:30 p.m., Luis Afonso, M.D., WSU associate professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology.

* "Percutaneous Intervention in 2011," 2 p.m., Theodore Schreiber, M.D., president of the DMC Cardiovascular Institute.

* Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke," 2:30 p.m., Pamela Mason, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System.

* "Congestive Heart Failure in the Inner City," 3 p.m., Jalal Ghali, M.D., WSU professor of Internal Medicine, chief of Cardiology at Detroit Receiving Hospital, director of the Heart Failure Program, and medical director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Program at the Detroit Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute.

Registration and a continental breakfast begin at 7:15 a.m. The $50 registration fee includes course materials and lunch. For more information and to register on line, visit www.med.wayne.edu//cme/calendarReg.html or call (313) 577-1180.