Abstract
Recent US Census data confirm what many Americans have casually observed: racial and ethnic minorities are the fastest-growing segments of the US population. By mid century, nearly one in two Americans will be an Asian American, Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic, American Indian, and/or Alaska Native. Since 2000, Hispanics have accounted for 3.5 million or over one-half of the population increase of 6.9 million individuals in the United States. The number of Asian Americans grew at a larger proportion (9%) than any other racial or ethnic group during this same time period. And in at least three states (California, Hawaii, and New Mexico) and the District of Columbia, racial and ethnic “minorities” constitute a majority of the population (1).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
U.S. Bureau of the Census, “Hispanic population reaches all-time high of 38.8 million, new Census Bureau estimates show,” available: http://www.census.gov/press-release/www/2003/cb03-100.html (accessed September 24, 2003).
Smedley, B. D., Stith-Bulter, A., and Bristow, L. (eds.) (2004) Institute of Medicine, In the Nation’s Compelling Interest: Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
The Sullivan Commission (2004) Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions. A Report of the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, (http://www.sullivancommission.org, accessed September 22, 2004).
Chen, J., Rathore, S. S., Radford, M. J., Wang, Y., and Krumholz, H. M. (2001) Racial differences in the use of cardiac catherterization after acute myocardial infarction. N. Engl. J. Med. 344(19), 1443–1449.
Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., and Nelson, A. R. (eds.) (2003) Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Bach, P. B., Cramer, L. D., Warren, J. L., Berg, C. B. (1999) Racial differences in the treatment of early-stage lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 341(16), 1198–1205.
Rosenheck, R., Fontana, A., and Cottrol, C. (1995) Effect of clinician-veteran racial pairing in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Am. J. Psychiatry 152(4), 555–563.
Moy, E. and Bartman, A. (1995) Physician race and care of minority and medically indigent patients. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 273(19), 1515–1520.
Cantor, J. C., Miles, E. L., Baker, L. C., and Barker, D. C. (1996) Physician service to the underserved: Implications for Affirmative Action in medical education. Inquiry 33, 167–181.
Komaromy, M., Grumbach, K., Drake, M., et al. (1996) The role of Black and Hispanic physicians in providing health care for underserved populations. N. Engl. J. Med. 334(20), 1305–1310.
Solomon, E. S., Williams, C. R., and Sinkford, J. C. (2001) Practice location characteristics of Black dentists in Texas. J. Dent. Educ. 65(6), 571–574.
Mertz, E. A. and Grumbach, K. (2001) Identifying communities with low dentist supply in California. J. Public Health Dent. 61(3), 172–177.
Saha, S., Komaromy, M., Koepsell, T. D., and Bindman, A. B. (1999) Patient-physician racial concordance and the perceived quality and use of health care. Arch. Intern. Med. 159, 997–1004.
LaVeist, T. A. and Nuru-Jeter, A. (2002) Is doctor-patient race concordance associated with greater satisfaction with care? J. Health Soc. Behav. 43(3), 296–306.
Cooper-Patrick, L., Gallo, J. J., Gonzales, J. J., et al. (1999) Race, gender, and partnership in the patient-physician relationship. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 282(6), 583–589.
Perez-Stable, E. J., Napoles-Springer, A., and Miramontes, J. M. (1998) The effects of ethnicity and language on medical outcomes of patients with hypertension or diabetes. Med. Care 35(12), 1212–1219.
Cooper, L. A., Rotes, D. L., Johnson, R. L., Ford, D. E., and Steinwachs, D. M. (2003) Patient-centered communication, ratings, of care, and concordance of patient and physician race. Ann. Intern. Med. 139(11), 907–915.
Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., and Carrillo, J. E. (2002) Cultural Competence in Health Care: Emerging Frameworks and Practical Approaches. The Commonwealth Fund, New York.
Whitla, D. K., Orfield, G., Silen, W., Teperow, C., Howard, C., and Reede, J. (2003) Educational benefits of diversity in medical school: a survey of students. Acad. Med. 78(5), 460–466.
Gurin, P., Dey, E. L., Hurtado, S., and Gurin, G. (2002) Diversity and higher education: theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harv. Educ. Rev. 72(3), 330–366.
Antonio, A. L., Chang, M. J., Hakuta, K., Kenny, D. A., Levin, S., and Milem, J. F. (2004) Effects of racial diversity on complex thinking in college students. Psychol. Sci. 15(8), 507–510.
Haynes, A. M. and Smedley, B. D. (eds.) (1997) Institute of Medicine, The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Programs and Research on Minorities and the Medically Underserved, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Institute of Medicine, 1999.
Institute of Medicine, 2004.
Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., Colburn, L., and Evans, C. H. (2001) The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in Health Professions. The National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2001) Inequality in teaching and schooling: how opportunity is rationed to students of color in America. in The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in Health Professions, (Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., Colburn, L., and Evans, C. H. eds.) The National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Nettles, M. T. and Millett, C. M. (2001) Toward diverse student representation and higher achievement in higher levels of the American educational meritocracy. in Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., and Colburn. L.
Rainey, M. L. (2001) How do we retain minority health professions students? in Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., and Colburn. L.
The Sullivan Commission, 2004.
Cantor, J. C., Bergeisen, L., and Baker, L. C. (1998) Effect of an intensive educational program for minority college students and recent graduates on the probability of acceptance to medical school. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 280(9), 772–776.
Edwards, J. C., Elam, C. L., and Wagoner, N. E. (2001) An admission model for medical schools. Acad. Med. 76(12), 1207–1212.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Humana Press Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Smedley, B.D. (2007). The Diversity Benefit. In: Williams, R.A. (eds) Eliminating Healthcare Disparities in America. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-485-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-485-8_7
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-934115-42-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-485-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)