Asian American Research Center on Health

The Asian American Research Center on Health (ARCH) was formed in 2011 by researchers, clinicians, and community leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using an open and collaborative environment, ARCH aims to be a leader in Asian American health research to promote health and health equity in partnership with Asian American communities. We provide a supportive virtual environment for people interested in Asian American health research, and our members reside in many states.

ARCH emerged from several major community-academic programs based at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). The Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project (VCHPP, Suc Khoe La Vang!) was one of the first Asian American health research organizations formed in 1986. The Vietnamese Reach for Health Coalition was organized in 2000 and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address health issues for the Vietnamese American community in Santa Clara County, CA. In the same year, the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) was funded by the National Cancer Institute, and an AANCART site addressing Chinese, Vietnamese, and other Asian American communities was established in San Francisco. Subsequently, AANCART’s community-engaged research projects expanded to include Filipino, Hmong, and Korean communities. Additional collaborators include the UCSF team leading the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) study, which has been funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute since 2010, and remains the only longitudinal cohort study of South Asians in the U.S.

ARCH is supported by the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine and the UCSF Office of Opportunity and Outreach.