Prep Sports Notebook | Urbana drops home opener

URBANA - The Urbana girls' basketball team opened their 2023-24 campaign with a loss at home on Tuesday. While playing a defensively solid game, the Tigers' offensive effort fell short in the 35-14 loss.

Aziyaha Davis led UHS' scoring effort with six points, four produced in the final quarter of the game. Zion Reid and Janae Hall came off the bench to hit a field goal and sink one free throw to finish with three points apiece.

The Tiger varsity squad is back in action tonight, hosting McArthur at 7pm.

Aziyaha Davis dribbles around senior Diamond Landfair during first half action of their Big 12 Conference game on December 8, 2022. The senior started the season as the Tigers' leading scorer. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Rockets open season with win over PBL

Back again at the Lady Falcon/Bunnie Tip Off, the Unity girls' basketball team notched tipped off the season with a 51-27 win over Paxton-Buckley-Loda.

Raegen Stringer led the Rockets with 18 points and six steals. Addison Ray contributed another 13 points in the rout. Ray and Meredith Reed had six rebounds apiece in Unity's total haul of 32.

UHS was up 24-9 at the half and kept the foot of the gas, adding another 27 points in the second half.

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Two area players earn All-State recognition

Brock Suding after the Unity's homecoming game against Rantoul in 2022.

St. Joseph-Ogden's Logan Smith and Unity's Brock Suding were named All-State players by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association earlier this week.

Suding, a 6-foot, 195-pound linebacker was key in Rockets' postseason run. Averaging 13 tackles per game, he led Unity to 9-3 and was the anchor on a defense that allowed opponents just 259 points in 12 games. The senior also saw playing time as a running back, carrying the ball 13 times for 72 yards.

Smith, the Illini Praire Conference's most explosive signal caller, threw the ball 269 time for 2,686 yards, topping his 2022-23 stat of 2,582 yards. In addition to the two-year starter's 5,268 total passing yards, he also amassed 796 rushing yards in his 22 varsity appearances. The senior ran in 20 touchdowns and passed for 29 this season.

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Attention Coaches: Help us keep area fans informed! Email us your team's game and match results for the Prep Sports Notebook. Please send us a clear photo of the scorebook and other stats or information to us at sports@oursentinel.com.

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Innovation is the key to improving health in rural areas

by The American Heart Association

Dallas, TX - Cardiovascular mortality is on the rise in rural areas of the United States, where more than 60 million Americans live, according to an American Heart Association presidential advisory. Understanding and addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to the Association’s pursuit of a world of longer, healthier lives.

Today — on National Rural Health Day — the Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, announces two new collaborative efforts to help close the gap between rural and urban hospital care and bring equitable care to all, regardless of where you live.

“Addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to achieving the American Heart Association’s 2024 impact goal for equitably increasing healthy life expectancy nationwide,” said Karen Joynt-Maddox, M.D., MPH, American Heart Association volunteer, associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine and co-director of the Washington University in St. Louis Center for

Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research. “Innovative collaborations like these are key to improving rural health across the nation.”

Sharing clinical educational resources

The American Heart Association is collaborating with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to highlight and share cardiovascular and stroke clinical educational resources such as model practices, collaborative learnings and rural quality research findings with NRHA membership.

Through this collaboration, the American Heart Association will submit content for NRHA’s magazine Rural Horizons, weekly e-newsletter NRHA Today and Journal of Rural Health, as well as participate in NRHA’s 2024 Annual Rural Health Conference and 2024 Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital Conference.

“NRHA is excited to partner with the American Heart Association to share resources and education to help reduce rural cardiovascular health disparities,” said NRHA CEO Alan Morgan.

Harmonizing quality data for analysis and validation

The American Heart Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) are collaborating on efforts to resolve outcomes gaps and identify model practices for hospitals and health systems in the rural setting. This effort will identify sites participating in both organizations’ respective quality programs and cross-promote their data registries, as well as explore data harmonization and opportunities for shared data analysis and validation.

The Association and ACEP share common priorities in addressing outcomes gaps in rural areas and building the knowledge base needed for evidence-based clinical practice. Reaching clinicians and providers and other key constituents with important messages is foundational to these efforts.

ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative strives to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes. The E-QUAL data submission activities have been designed to allow hospitals who are already participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® programs to seamlessly meet all E-QUAL reporting requirements.

“Through ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative, we strive to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes,” said Kori Zachrison, M.D., MSc, E-QUAL Stroke Initiative co-lead. “While many rural EDs may be working with fewer resources at their disposal, they remain the anchor of the community’s stroke chain of survival. We’re thrilled to work side-by-side with the AHA in investing in these communities.”

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Lack of representation significant barrier for optimal health in Hispanic Latino community

by The American Heart Association

Dallas, TX - Disparities in health care persist, with Hispanic and Black adults reporting less satisfaction with their interactions with physicians, leading to poorer quality of care and health outcomes.^[1],[2],[3] While 19% of people in the U.S. identify as Hispanic, fewer than 7% of physicians do.^[4]

This lack of representation in the delivery of health care has been shown to exacerbate health disparities among underrepresented groups and is a significant barrier to the Hispanic Latino community achieving optimal health.^[5] In response to this challenge, the American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, has established the National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative (NHLCC). This initiative specifically unites Hispanic Latino volunteers, professional staff and allied supporters committed to bridging the gap in health care disparities and ensuring that equitable health is a reality for everyone everywhere.

The group launched its second cohort of the National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative Scholars Program during the American Heart Association’s annual Scientific Sessions the world’s preeminent scientific meeting focused on cardiovascular disease. This NHLCC mentorship and professional development program aims to leverage the global gathering of scientific thought leadership to cultivate the next generation of Hispanic Latino researchers and health care leaders, in turn actively addressing longstanding systemic inequities in health care.

“The important of representation within health care and research cannot be overstated. As the American Heart Association strives for equity in cardiovascular health outcomes, we are excited to support the National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative to uplift the voices and experiences of the Hispanic Latino community, in an effort to eliminate health disparities and improve health and well-being,” said Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, the American Heart Association’s chief medical officer for prevention, and the executive staff sponsor of the National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative.

Scientific Sessions 2023 also featured the inaugural NHLCC Symposium. The symposium, Scientific Sessions’ first ever session dedicated solely to Hispanic Latino health, focused on leading community figures in medicine, clinical research and the social sciences. The session enabled meaningful dialogue about the state of Hispanic Latino health and health care in the United States, while examining emerging trends and identifying strategies for cultivating the next generation of Hispanic Latino health care leaders.

Scientific studies confirm that diversity among nurses, physicians and health care teams enhances overall patient outcomes and dismantles cultural barriers.^[6]  Specific research conducted by Penn State University emphasizes the significance of addressing implicit biases within health systems and diversifying the physician workforce to better meet patients' preferences.^{[7] ,[8]}