A note from the WPS chair
May 2025
From WPS Chair Elisa Choi, MD
2025 Annual Meeting
The 2025 WPS Annual Meeting is rapidly approaching. Visit the 2025 WPS Annual Meeting agenda & resources page for details about annual meeting events. We look forward to seeing you!
Pan Asian Heritage Month
May holds special significance for me. It is Pan Asian (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander) Heritage Month. Our Pan Asian community faces many barriers to achieving health equity. The false "model minority myth," the inaccurate aggregation of our diverse and heterogeneous ethnic groups into an "Asian" monolith, and the exclusion from data in research and clinical studies, all perpetuate and exacerbate significant Asian health disparities in diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health and other medical conditions.
The Pan Asian community includes more than 50 ethnic subgroups, speaking more than 100 different languages and dialects, yet Asian racial/ethnic data is often trivialized as "other," or omitted entirely, in medical studies. However, as Asians in the U.S. constitute 6-7% of the U.S. population and are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group, advocacy for inclusion and accurate disaggregated data collection in research and clinical studies must continue. Especially this month, but ALL year round, let’s debunk the "myth of the model minority," rebut the stereotype of Asians as "perpetual foreigners," strive for specific and accurate Asian data inclusion in medical studies, and uplift Asian colleagues for career advancement and leadership roles.
Mental health awareness
May is also National Mental Health Awareness Month, and May 11-17 is National Women’s Health Week. In that spirit, I want to share some Asian mental health disparities.
- In 2023, Asian American adults were 50% less likely to have received mental health treatment than non-Hispanic white adults (National Survey on Drug Use and Health).
- Per the National Latino and Asian American Study, 18% of the general U.S. population sought mental health services and resources, compared to only 8.6% of Asian Americans.
- Among all women ages 65-84, Asian American females had the highest suicide rate (PDF). U.S.-born Asian American women experienced suicidal thoughts at 15.9%, higher than the general U.S. population (13.5%).
Women's History Month webinar
The recording from the 2025 Women's History Month webinar, "Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations" is now available.
Thank you and congratulations
This month’s WPS Members and News Highlights marks the last one for this current 2024-2025 Governing Council. I want to personally thank each governing council member for their wonderful efforts and terrific teamwork to support and sustain our WPS this past year.
Contact and connect with the WPS
Thank you to all WPS members for joining me this past year as we embarked upon our 3 Cs (collaborations, connections and community). For the final edition this year, let’s include a 4th C―celebrations.
I look forward to celebrating with you all at A-25 in just a few weeks!
Keep in touch with us by joining the WPS GroupMe chat, or email us at [email protected].
