Hispanic Physicians Must Take A Leadership Role

Published in partnership with 

Authors:

Ramon Jiminez, MD
Orthopedic surgeon, Monterey Peninsula Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Institute, Monterey, California

Erick Santos, MD, PhD
Orthopedic surgeon, South Central Texas Bone & Joint Center, Corpus Christi, Texas

Hispanic/Latino physicians need to participate as partners in the fight to decrease disparities in healthcare delivery.

As Hispanic/Latino physicians, we are challenged daily to enable our patients to receive optimum health care. The Hispanic/Latino patient population faces many unique obstacles to achieving this goal. These include language barriers, cultural understanding, socio-economic factors, and comorbidities of obesity and diabetes. These factors can lead to poor health outcomes.

Statistics tell us that there is a worsening shortage of doctors that are racially and ethnically concordant (who have language skills and cultural familiarity needed to serve Hispanic patients). Thus we need a call to action at the national and state levels to increase the ranks of Hispanic physicians. In addition, those of us physicians (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) who serve the Hispanic/Latino population in all regions of this country must educate our patients and the public to raise awareness of these important issues that affect the Hispanic/Latino community. READ MORE at Start Moving Start Living.