(Black PR Wire) AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Acessa Health Inc., developer of the Acessa System®, announced today it is continuing its collaboration with The White Dress Project, a nonprofit group that promotes fibroid awareness and advocacy, to present a session at this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. Earlier this year, both organizations announced the launch of the Goodbye Fibroids initiative which aims to unite women, physicians and leaders to raise awareness and elevate the standard of care for uterine fibroids. “We are focused on ensuring that women have access to all available treatment options for their uterine fibroids. Unfortunately, there is a well-established racial barrier to women receiving less invasive alternatives to hysterectomy and this joint session aims to elevate the discussion among civil leaders surrounding this disparity,” said Acessa Health President and CEO Kim Rodriguez.

The current racial disparities impacting uterine fibroids are significant and well established in medical literature. As an example, among women who underwent hysterectomy for benign indications, African American women were less likely to receive a minimally invasive hysterectomy compared to white women. They were also 40% more likely to develop complications, nearly three times as likely to have a long hospital stay, and three times as likely to die, even though African American women were younger on average. Tanika Gray Valbrun, founder of The White Dress Project, noted, “As a community we need to begin to address and change the clear, systematic and structural defect within the US healthcare system that disproportionately pushes women of color toward the most invasive option, which is hysterectomy.”

This session will bring together leaders such as Adrianna Hopkins, host of Good Morning Washington and fibroids patient; Dr. Alicia Christy, Deputy Director of Reproductive Health at the Veterans Administration; Dr. Nicole Williams from The Gynecology Institute of Chicago; and Patient Ambassadors from The White Dress Project, Rashetta Fairnot and Jennifer Branison.

“This multi-stakeholder panel brings together the perspectives of patients, physicians and policy makers to begin tackling this complex topic,” said Dr. Nicole Williams, Founder and CEO of The Gynecology Institute of Chicago. “I am honored to be included in this panel and I believe that in order to effect change we need to open discussions about what is contributing to the overuse of hysterectomy to treat fibroids.”