NEW YORK— Healthcare public relations firm Cooney Waters Group and the vox collective, a Hispanic-owned advertising and marketing agency, have joined forces to launch Cultúr Health, which will develop communication programs to help healthcare industry clients reach the more than 50 million Hispanics living in the US.

“Hispanics are emerging as the most sought after consumer target and are rapidly replacing baby boomers as the new, profitable growth opportunity for health care companies,” says Roberto Ramos, the vox collective’s president and CEO. He says the Hispanic population is increasing by more than 1 million per year and is now the second largest consumer group after non-Hispanic whites. By the year 2050, one out of every four Americans will be Latino.

At the same time, while US Hispanics are at significant risk for many treatable diseases—heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Other health conditions that significantly affect Hispanics are asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), HIV/AIDS, obesity and liver disease—the two firms believe there is a significant lack of educational programming that specifically targets Hispanics.

“Many Hispanics are largely unaware about their increased risk for chronic diseases, and how these diseases can be prevented or treated,” says Fred Lake, executive vice president of Cooney/Waters. “Yet, research shows that 80 percent of Latinos are hungry for information about medical innovation and health care.”

Cultúr Health builds on an already established partnership between the vox collective and Cooney Waters, which has produced national, regional and grassroots programming to reach Hispanics.