St. Luke’s Presents Region’s First General Public COVID Vaccine Forum in Spanish

St. Luke’s University Health Network, in conjunction with the Hispanic Center of the Lehigh Valley, will present the first Spanish community conversation about the Covid-19 Vaccine -- “Keeping Our Community Safe” on Wednesday, February 24 at 11:30 am. This free virtual event will be presented entirely in Spanish.

Join host and moderator Victor Martinez, President and CEO of La Mega Radio, for an up close and personal conversation with Hispanic community leaders regarding the latest information on the COVID-19 vaccine and perspectives around it.

The event will feature Dr. Leonardo Claros, St. Luke’s Chief of Bariatric Surgery, as well as Dr. Alycia Walty, Chief Medical Officer, Star Community Health, and David Mann, Spanish Ministries Pastor and Global Missions Director, Life Church.

To register for a link to watch “Keeping Our Community Safe,” visit the St. Luke’s Events Calendar at www.sluhn.org.

This forum is part of St. Luke’s ongoing programming to connect with communities of color to present information and answer questions about COVID-19 and vaccination. Other examples include:

• St. Luke’s critical care physician, Osamudiamen Idahosa, MD, participated in a Facebook live discussion for Greater Shiloh Church last week. The discussion focused on ways to reach out to communities of color regarding the vaccine. The session was moderated by Pastor Phil David and included Shelly Blake R.P.H., a pharmacist in Easton, as well as Nishea Clark, a consultant for St. Luke’s.
• St. Luke’s will join Faces International, Union Baptist Church and PPL Electric Utilities in a free virtual discussion for the community on the COVID-19 vaccine, its origins, its effectiveness and its availability on Friday, February 19 from 6:30 – 8 pm. “Your Questions Answered: A Community Discussion on the COVID-19 Vaccine” will address the mistrust of health care by communities of color and share scientific information on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. The discussion will be moderated by Monica Brooks, manager of diversity & inclusion, PPL Electric Utilities. The panelists, including St. Luke’s physicians, will participate in an open Q&A session immediately following the presentation.

“At St. Luke’s, we have been playing an active role to ensure that our providers are sharing vital information about the importance of the vaccine and answer questions for our racial and ethnic minority populations,” Rajika E. Reed, Ph.D., MPH, M.Ed., Senior Network Director of Epidemiology & Strategy, St. Luke’s Community Health & Preventive Medicine.

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Media Contact:

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke's

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 16,000 employees providing services at 12 hospitals sites and 300+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue in excess of $2.5 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 38 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 347 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked St. Luke’s #1 in the Lehigh Valley and #6 in the state. Three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals. St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health eight times total and six years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.