By Edwin Flores
On the first-ever National Latino Doctor's Day this Saturday, advocates are working to raise awareness of the relatively small number of Latino doctors and surgeons in the United States amid growing health care needs and disparities in community.
“In the last 40 years, the number of Latino doctors has not changed.
It's a failure,” Dr. César Padilla, one of the campaign organizers and an adjunct clinical professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, told our sister network, NBC News.
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Latinos represent 7% of the workforce of doctors and surgeons and 9% of all health professionals and technicians, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 5 Americans — 62.6 million — are Latino, according to the latest 2020 census figures, a 23% increase from 2010.
“There was an urgency to increase the number of Latino doctors in the United States before the coronavirus.
Now it is a crisis,” Padilla added, noting the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on the Latino community.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that Latinos are 1.5 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19, twice as likely to be hospitalized and 1.8 times more likely to die from the virus than their white counterparts.
In total, Latinos so far account for 17.1% of all coronavirus-related deaths and 24.6% of all cases.
Latinos are less likely to have health coverage than their non-Latino counterparts, at 20% versus 9%, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
In addition to language and cultural barriers, socioeconomic factors have also led to worse outcomes for patients, according to the paper.
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Physicians who speak the same native language and are able to relate to their patients' cultural experiences have been linked to higher patient outcomes, a notion also supported by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
This nonprofit group, which accredits all postgraduate medical training programs in the US, emphasizes the need to educate physicians who are more likely to work in underserved areas or with minority patients on these nuances.
“I was the only Mexican in my medical school class out of 104 students.
That didn't sit well with me because I felt anxiety.
I felt out of place,” recalled Padilla, who has dual training from Harvard Medical School in critical care medicine and obstetric anesthesiology, with additional training in critical care echocardiography.
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Dr. Michael Galvez, director of pediatric hand and upper extremity surgery at Valley Children's Hospital in Madera, Calif., was also concerned about the dearth of Latino faculty in the field of surgery and partnered with Padilla to help raise awareness of disparity.
Dr. Michael Galvez performs pediatric hand surgery. Courtesy of Dr. Michael Galvez
“It can't just be us,” said Galvez, who completed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship and a residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford.
“When you look around and realize that you are one of the few Latino or Latina doctors, it is not enough,” he lamented.
Padilla added, “If the number of Latinos enrolling in medical school were to double, it would take 92 years for the Latino medical workforce to meet the needs of the community.”
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Although National Latino Physician Day has received no recognition from Congress, it has garnered broad support from Latino and non-Latino organizations, nonprofits, and societies, including the American Medical Association, the nation's largest group representing doctors and the National Hispanic Medical Association, among others.
"We want patients to be outraged as well," Galvez said.
"How is it that we are writing off the pandemic when there are important factors that have affected families? The simple fact that a family member dies is something important and traumatic. It is something that is going to cost our community more time: getting a new balance.
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Both doctors focus their attention on California, the state with the largest Latino population, at 40%, highlighting programs to access and support aspiring underserved medical students.
Latinos make up 11% of the state's medical school graduates.
Of the 940,254 active physicians in the country, 50,797 are Latino.
California has the largest number of practicing physicians, with 113,718, of which 6.3% are Latino.
In Texas, Latinos represent 11.3% of all active physicians;
15.8% in Florida;
5.2% in New York and 4.5% in Illinois, according to the 2021 State Workforce Data Report from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
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One of the support programs doctors highlighted is California Medicine Scholars, a systemwide pilot program that collaborates with local universities and community colleges to increase the number of Latino and minority pre-med students and diversify the workforce. of work.
It has received $10 million in funding from the state of California and about $5 million from private donations.
“This is just a state.
But what we need is for this program to multiply throughout the country,” said Padilla.
Dr. César Padilla teaches Areli Valencia, a Stanford medical student. Courtesy of Dr. César Padilla
Another program helping the next generation succeed in medical school is the Alliance in Mentorship/MiMentor, a national nonprofit that matches underrepresented aspiring physicians with mentors.
The program has more than 13,000 members, 10% of whom are from California and Latino, according to Padilla, who is its chief medical education adviser.
Many Latinos have non-traditional paths to higher education, or begin their higher education studies at community colleges.
The cost of medical school is also a challenge for many Latino families.
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For those looking to attend, the median total cost of medical school is $218,792, or an annual cost of $54,698, according to data from the Education Data Initiative.
For Latinos, the median debt is $211,659.
Additional costs can add up quickly too, including living expenses, exam fees, and equipment, among others.
“It will take many years to improve things.
We are going to continue working in this direction until there is a total awareness on the part of all the institutions [and] medical schools.
We are not going to disappear,” Gálvez explained.
After recently operating on a young patient, the boy's parents told him he was the first Latino doctor they had ever met.
Gálvez said it was "an honor."