|
They came from across the state,
never having gathered under one roof. This cohort of men and women from
diverse countries and cultures—attendees at the first Ethnic Physician
Summit—are motivated by one common goal: to improve the health of their
communities.
Physicians serve patients in moments of crisis:
birth, illness, and death. At such moments, the physician, no matter how
skilled in modern technology, must help heal the patient in both body and
soul. This group of multi-ethnic physicians provides a comforting voice, a
sympathetic shoulder, consolation and support for their patients. They are
excellent in this regard because they have the cultural sensitivity and
linguistic competency to communicate with their patients in a manner most
familiar to them during a moment of crisis.
When the physician understands the patient’s
culture and language, the "bedside manner" is clearly enriched.
Two physician
leaders who clearly understand this perspective are Rolland Lowe, M.D.,
and Frank Staggers, M.D., the visionaries behind "Diverse Partners, Common
Goals; working together to improve the health of communities
," a report released October 2002 by the
California Medical Association Foundation. Drs. Lowe and Staggers and
their staffs spent a year traveling across California to gather data on
the numerous ethnic physician organizations in the state.
Their enthusiasm and determination is
to see ethnic physician organizations play a greater role in their
communities and ultimately provide greater input into our evolving health
system.
After
meeting with ethnic physician leaders and gathering survey data on
their medical association, these visionaries decided to convene an Ethnic Physician
Summit in San Mateo last June to share the findings and explore opportunities for
future direction. These ethnic physician leaders are exemplary because
despite having busy practices, often serving the poor and immigrant
populations with complex health conditions, they have an uplifting
willingness to do even more for their communities.
As the summit progressed, not even
these visionaries could have predicted the truly amazing outcome. In the
midst of the summit, the group came together to craft a written message to
all members of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors regarding the Los
Angeles health crisis. They expressed their "deep misgivings and great
concern" about the proposed cuts by the Los Angeles County Department of
Health Services and their disproportionate impact on the ethnic
communities served by these physicians.
In this act, and in their subsequent
decisions at the summit, these physician leaders demonstrated their
willingness to apply their considerable prestige to advocate and influence
public policy decisions that impact their communities and their
colleagues. No longer will "critical decisions that impact their
communities and practices be made without them at the table," they said.
As the ethnic physician leaders from
the Latino, African-American, Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippino, East
Indian, Korean, and Peruvian medical associations coalesced around their
response to the Los Angeles County Healthcare Crisis, they also set in
motion a process to create a network of ethnic physician organizations to
serve as a platform for collective action.
The mission of this network will be
to improve access to care and reduce health disparities for their
communities. A sense of pride and commitment was the guiding spirit at the
summit that ensures that the voices of ethnic physicians will continue to
be heard on critical healthcare issues in California.
Projects such as this one will open
the door to better health care and improved community health for all
Californians.
The greatest challenge facing health
care in the 21st century is to understand the health care needs and
expectations of these growing multi-ethnocultural populations. Concrete
solutions in resolving these disparities in care in underserved
populations will bring society closer to universal access to health care
services.
Our prosperity rests on our
collective will and ability to address diversity through the creation of
strong intergroup collaboration within an educational environment where
all can participate and thrive.
The future can not be predicted with
absolute certainty, but with what was seen, heard, and shared at the
summit convinced all those in attendance that decisions affecting the
health of California’s diverse communities will not be made without the
voices of ethnic physicians and their organizations being heard.
This opportunity to initiate
discourse with ethnocultural physician groups can mean only one thing: By
giving audience to the many voices in our land, a greater appreciation,
understanding, and respect for the breath and depth of humanity will lead
us out of darkness.
For more information regarding the
Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations, please contact Carol A. Lee at
clee@cmanet.org or 916/551-2562.
| 
