States, CME incorporating cultural competency training

Reducing disparities is one goal as education for practicing physicians begins to take off.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. July 16, 2007.

Physicians agree that health care disparities exist, but what is unclear is how much individual physicians contribute to why black heart attack patients get less-aggressive treatment than those who are white or why male diabetic patients have lower death rates than females.

A growing number of state legislatures and health plans see physicians as an integral part of narrowing such disparities. So physicians can expect to see cross-cultural care become an increasing part of their continuing medical education curriculum.

"This is not a passing trend," said Tawara D. Goode, director of the National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "In the last five years, I have seen a much greater emphasis on this in terms of addressing health disparities."

At least two states -- California and New Jersey -- have mandated cultural competency CME, and a third -- Ohio -- is considering it.

California is on the leading edge. As of July 2006, all CME there must contain clinically relevant cultural and linguistic information, such as how symptoms may present themselves differently in men versus women or how management of a disease should be adjusted for specific cultural groups.

"It's only a matter of time until other states adopt something like this," said Alecia Robinson, MPH, project administrator for California's cultural and linguistic competency program, which is being run through the Institute for Medical Quality, a subsidiary of the California Medical Assn. "What happens in California often translates to the rest of the U.S."