Doctors hope to inspire by school visits

Telling today's minority students about the medical profession could help make them tomorrow's physicians.

By Damon Adams, amednews staff. April 15, 2002.

Teresa Ramos, MD, handles the crowd with the ease of Jay Leno during a monologue.

Standing in front of a brown water heater in a cramped school storage and music room, she crisply volleys back answers to questions that students lob her way:

What does a doctor do? How much money does a doctor make? How many years of education is required?

Dr. Ramos has come to the Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago to tell seventh- and eighth- graders what it's like being a doctor. She's taking part in the AMA's Doctors Back to School program, a new initiative designed to get minority students interested in pursuing medical careers and to raise awareness about the need for minority doctors.

Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans make up about one-fourth of the U.S. population while only 7% of all doctors are minorities, the AMA said.

Dr. Ramos and other program participants said having a minority physician speak to students shows minority youths that they can become doctors, too.

"It can make a difference," said Dr. Ramos, an internist whose office is near the school.

Bringing along some tools of the trade also helps spark interest.

Dr. Ramos and Antonio Delgado, MD, also an internist, brought x-rays, stethoscopes, an otoscope and an ophthalmoscope. Students listened to each other's heartbeats and looked into their classmates' ears and eyes.

For eighth-grade student Alexandra Lopez, 13, the visit was a chance to see her future career.

"It was very, very interesting. I really want to be a doctor," said Lopez. [...]

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