Second National Conference on
Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations:
Strategy and Action for Communities, Providers, and a Changing Health System

II-B1: Cultural Competence For Physicians Serving Hispanic/ Latino Patients

Cultural Competence and Hispanic Physician Practice Patterns

The proposed training session will increase awareness of an aspect of Ethnomedicine that includes the important role of Hispanic physicians in developing the health system's ability to adapt to the changing diversity of regions of the US population where there is a high density of Hispanics.

In 1978, the World Health Organization recommended that traditional medicine be promoted, developed and integrated whenever possible with modern scientific medicine. Ethnomedicine has been defined as the beliefs and behaviors about appropriate treatment for diseases. Many ethnic physicians continue to be raised by families with traditional cultural values and are an important source of information for their ethnic patients.

Hispanic physicians, in general, have set up practice in Hispanic communities or serve greater numbers of Hispanic patients than non-Hispanic physicians in the United States. However, as the Hispanic population increases, non-Hispanic physicians are finding more Hispanic patients among their case load.

Cultural competence is a major focus of the National Hispanic Medical Association and this session will encourage the discussion of principles for training of physicians and other health professionals how to improve their delivery of health promotion and disease prevention and medical care to Hispanic patients.

The National Hispanic Medical Association and its Foundation are developing a Cultural Competence program, including a survey of practice patterns of Hispanic physicians with Hispanic patients, a survey of current medical education curriculum, and a Continuing Medical Education (CME) Training Project for physicians and other health providers.

Regional variation among Hispanic populations is an important frame of reference for this session. The NHMA physician presenters will include physicians from various cultural backgrounds who serve Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Central and South American and new Immigrant Mexicans in different regions of the country.

Cultural competence principles to be discussed will include discussion on how to improve the following areas:

1. Quality medical care delivery for Hispanic patients
   
2. Physician and Hispanic patient/family communication
   
3. Hispanic patient cultural and Spanish language needs
   
4. Medical office setting and referral patterns
   
5. Community relations for Hispanic physicians
   
6. Marketing to the Hispanic community

Elena Rios, MD, MSPH attained her MD degree from UCLA School of Medicine in 1987 followed by her residency training in Internal Medicine at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California and White Memorial Medical Center in East Los Angeles from 1987-1990. Currently, Dr. Rios serves as President of the National Hispanic Medical Association, representing Hispanic physicians in the United States and Director of the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools, Inc., representing 21 medical schools with 9% Hispanic student enrollment. The mission of both organizations is to improve the health care of Hispanics across the nation. Dr. Rios also serves on the AMA's Minority Affairs Consortium Steering Committee, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda Board of Directors, is Co-Chair for the Hispanic Health Coalition, and was recently appointed by Secretary Shalala to the Advisory Panel for Medicare Education. In 1993, Dr. Rios was appointed to the National Health Care Reform Task Force and served as the Coordinator of Outreach Groups for the White House. Dr. Rios served as the Advisor for Regional and Minority Women's Health for the US Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health from November,1994 to October,1998.

Moderator:

Elena V. Rios, MD, MSPH
President, National Hispanic Medical Association
1411 K Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 628-5895
Fax: (202) 628-5898
Email: nhma@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~nhma

Conchita Paz, MD received a BS and a MD from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Paz has returned to private practice after seven years of service with a private HMO of New Mexico. Currently, she serves as a part-time faculty member for medical students attending University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Southern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program. She is native of Las Cruces, New Mexico where she has practiced family medicine for ten years. During the past ten years, Dr. Paz has been appointed chairperson of the Family Practice Department, and a participating member of Critical Care, Executive, Performance Improvement, Bylaws, and Rules and Regulations committees at Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Paz was secretary of the Dona Ana County Medical Society for four years. She was past president of the New Mexico Hispanic Medical Association from 1992 to 1994.

Conchita Paz, MD
Family Care Associates
Las Cruces, NM
Member, Presidential Advisory Committee on Alternative Medicine
NHMA Advisory Committee Member

Dr. Norma Villanueva, MD is a Puerto Rican born and raised in New York. She attended the Albert Einstein College of Medecine and trained at the Montefiore Residency Program for Social Medecine in Pediatrics. She was medical director of various outpatient health centers most recently at La Providence Family Health Center, which was established as collaboration with the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services and the Brooklyn Hospital in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and NY. Currently, she still has a practice in Brooklyn and is a medical consultant to the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of Lehigh Valley Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Dr. Villanueva is also a clinical assistant professor of SUNY Downstate Medical School.

Norma Iris Villanueva, MD
Medical Consultant
Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations
Of the Lehigh Valley, Inc.
Bethlehem, PA
NHMA Leadership Fellow Class of 2000

Rafael Gonzalez-Amezcua, MD was born in a small town in Michoan, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of twelve. After receiving his medical degree from Chicago Medical School, he did his internal Medicine residency at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, CA. While in medical school, he helped organize a board review program with specific emphasis in helping Latino students.

Currently, Dr. Gonzalez-Amezcua is a staff physician for On Lok Senior Health Services. On Lok is an organization that provides comprehensive health services to the frail elderly in the San Francisco area. He serves a mostly Latino patient population. He is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and primarily teaches residents in outpatient Geriatrics. In addition, he serves on the Medical/Scientific Advisory Council to the Alzheimer's Association of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Gonzalez-Amezcua also serves as medical commentator for the Spanish speaking TV network UNIVISION.

Ahmed Calvo, MD is Director of Medical Education of the Scripps/USCD Family Practice Residency Program and Medical Director of the Scripps Otay Family Health Center in Chula Vista, California. Dr. Calvo is Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCSD School of Medicine working in the Division of Family Medicine and in the Division of International and Cross Cultural Medicine in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. He attended Stanford University and the UCSF School of Medicine. Past-President of the San Diego Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Calvo is currently Co-Chair of Latino Health Partnership in San Diego County. He is a Board member of the San Diego Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Scoutmaster of Troop 4 in La Jolla California.

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