Hologic this week announced an effort to improve healthcare for Black and Hispanic women in the U.S.

Project Health Equality (PHE) will focus initially on how Black and Hispanic women experience healthcare in different regions of the country and on making meaningful, sustainable improvements, according to the Marlborough, Mass.-based company. Hologic’s partners in the $20 million initiative are:

• The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI), which has worked with Hologic since 1998 to advance the health and wellness of Black women and girls in the U.S.
• The National Alliance for Hispanic Health (The Alliance) and its supporting organization, the Healthy Americas Foundation (HAF). The Alliance has worked with Hologic since 2014 in providing insights into Hispanic women/Latinas so PHE programs can effectively address barriers to healthcare that Hispanics regularly experience.
• RAD-AID, an international nonprofit working to increase and improve radiology in low-resource and medically underserved regions. Hologic’s grants to RAD-AID will support radiology, public education, nursing and patient navigation at sites selected by the nonprofit.

Black women in the U.S. are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer and two times more likely to die from cervical cancer than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also have a 14% higher incidence of cervical cancer than white women. Hispanic women are 40% more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer, and 20% more likely to die from it compared to non-Hispanic white women, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Finally, Black women experience fibroids up to three times more frequently than other racial groups, according to a study published this year in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

“Our goal is to end the disconnect between the care Black and Hispanic women receive and the care they should receive,” said Hologic CFO Karleen Oberton in a news release. “Project Health Equality is about doing the big, bold work necessary to create equity in the here and now that can reverberate across women’s lives and society for generations to come.”