CLEVELAND — Dr. Charles Modlin has spent more than three decades caring for those in the Cleveland community at the Cleveland Clinic.
Now, he is Metrohealth Medical Center’s first Medical Director for the Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity. It’s a role that perfectly aligns with the mission of his annual event, The Minority Men’s Health Fair.
“I had a responsibility to do what I could and what our medical institution could do to address a lot of these devastating health disparities and health inequities,” Modlin said.
Modlin launched the health fair in 2003 to offer African American and other minority men free screenings and assessments.
He said early detection of preventable diseases decreases fatality rates. He called the fair a small step toward addressing the health disparities that disproportionately afflict men of color.
“Black men develop and die from prostate cancer twice as often as their white male counterparts,” Modlin said. “They have higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, the list goes on and on and these healthcare disparities bear out to the fact that African American men, on average, have about a four-to-six year shorter life expectancy compared to their white male counterparts.”
Modlin said more than 500 MetroHealth staff and physicians have volunteered to help at the health fair.
“Dermatologist to do skin exams, we have ophthalmologists, head and neck surgeons, dentists for all oral examinations, cardiologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologist, urologist, nephrologist, allergist endocrinologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon. I say we’re going to have every ‘ologist’ under the sun here,” he said.
More than 16,000 men have attended the Minority Men’s Health Fair since it kicked off 17 years ago, including Reverend Clinton Hickman and Pastor Timothy Eppinger, who said the event changed their lives.
“That first year, I found out not only that I have hypertension, but I had a sugar problem. I was 270 pounds,” Eppinger said.
“I found out that I had prostate cancer and by me attending the health fair, it gave me the opportunity to learn about my illness,” Hickman said.
The two have been working with their congregations and communities to spread the word about the Minority Men’s Health Fair and its benefits.
“We will take them to a movie and take them to a dinner. Let’s take them to a screening where you can get results and have a breath of fresh air. That’s what we’ve been doing, trying to pitch to them. Let’s take them somewhere, but somewhere that’s important,” said Eppinger.
Modlin said some of the attendees are his patients and some are not, but most will tell him that attending the fair has in some way changed their life.
