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<div class="gmail-db-post-headline"><h1>LPPI study recommends med school students study underrepresented languages</h1></div>
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<h4> </h4><h4>By <a href="http://dailybruin.com/author/melissa-morris/" title="Posts by Melissa Morris" class="gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Melissa Morris</a></h4>
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<h5> Posted: </h5>
<h5> September 28, 2018</h5>
<h5> 1:03 am</h5>
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<p>UCLA researchers investigated the consequences of language mismatch
that occurs when physicians and patients cannot speak the same language.</p>
<p>Researchers from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative
analyzed California census data in a study released earlier this month
to gather evidence and develop policy solutions to address the shortage
of Spanish-speaking physicians in California.</p>
<p>LPPI director Sonja Diaz said in a press release Latinos are going to
college at higher rates than ever before, but fewer are graduating from
California medical schools than in 1980.</p>
<p>There are 62.1 Spanish-speaking physicians per 100,000
Spanish-speaking Californians, compared to 344.2 physicians for
English-speakers, according to the study. Southeast Asian languages,
including Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese are also underrepresented.</p>
<p>David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of health policy and management who
authored the study, said Californians with limited English proficiency
have worse health outcomes in areas including access to care, health
status and patient safety.</p>
<p>He added his work with underserved communities informed his personal
understanding of how a common language affects health outcomes.</p>
<p>“I’m a great believer that everyone should have best access to
healthcare, and language is part of that access,” Hayes-Bautista said.
“It’s a social justice issue, quite frankly.”</p>
<p>Hayes-Bautista is also the director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the UCLA School of Medicine.</p>
<p>Arturo Bustamante, an associate professor of health policy and
management affiliated with the study, said a lack of communication
between physicians and patients ultimately harms patients because of
unconscious biases and a diminished sense of trust.</p>
<p>Bustamante also said physicians are rewarded for being trained in
narrow, lucrative specialties, and not for providing more general
services to underserved communities. He added he thinks medical schools
should consider reforming to increase the number of well-rounded
physicians in underserved areas.</p>
<p>“Many of the first-year grads from med school don’t find incentives
to pursue a career in underserved areas,” Bustamante said. “We need
medical school, training and career tracks that train physicians that
have skills to work in other areas.”</p>
<p>The study suggests potentially changing medical school admissions to
include underrepresented language skills as part of their criteria.</p>
<p>Hayes-Bautista noted with such large applicant pools, medical schools
could afford to add proficiency in underrepresented languages to
admissions criteria.</p>
<p>Theodore Hall, associate dean for admissions at the David Geffen
School of Medicine, said in an emailed statement the school does not
have a language proficiency requirement beyond effective English
communication skills, but encourages applicants to consider learning
Spanish because of a large Latino patient population they will likely
encounter in their careers.</p>
<p>Dennis added changes to admissions criteria, such as the inclusion of
a language requirement, must be vetted by the Admissions Policy and
Oversight Committee and confirmed by the Faculty Executive Committee.</p>
<p>Hayes-Bautista added that learning a language is a decision anyone can make.</p>
<p>“Anybody can learn to speak one of those (underrepresented)
languages. I have a four-year-old grandson; he speaks Spanish perfectly
well,” Hayes-Bautista said. “It’s not impossible.”</p></div></div></div>
<br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>