Track 2-2b
Clinical

Cross-Cultural Primary Care-A Curriculum for Medical Residents

Physicians in urban centers face the unique challenge of caring for patients from many different social and cultural backgrounds. It is becoming increasing clear that health care outcomes such as compliance and satisfaction can be improved by considering various social and cultural factors which influence the way patients interact with the medical system. A graduate medical education curriculum on Cross-Cultural Primary Care has been developed at Cornell Medical Center to address these issues. It is designed to teach residents a set of basic concepts and skills that enhance their ability to communicate with, diagnose, treat, and manage patients whose cultural backgrounds and socio-economic realities differ from their own. Emphasis is placed on case analysis and problem solving rather than a factual, encyclopedic approach, which risks stereotyping. There is a strong focus on the impact of social factors on the cross-cultural medical encounter, often difficult or impossible to distinguish from the purely "cultural."

J. Emilio Carrillo, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Cornell University Medical Center
Medical Director,
The New York Hospital Community Health Plan
527 Third Avenue, Box 303
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 297-5514
Fax: (212) 297-5916
ecarrill@nyh1.med.cornell.edu

Dr. J. Emilio Carrillo is an expert in the development, delivery and graduate medical education of Primary Care Medicine as well as health promotion and disease prevention. For ten years he served in the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, where he practiced, taught medicine, and administered primary care programs as well as conducted research on infant mortality prevention, smoking prevention and cross-cultural primary care. Dr. Carrillo was a co-founder of the Boricua Health Organization, as well as the Journal of Latin Community Health and the Journal of Multicultural Community Health. Currently he serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College. There he teaches Primary Care Medicine and recently introduced a Cultural Competency Curriculum for Medical Residents. He is also the co-founder and Medical Director of the New York Hospital Community Health Plan.

Alexander R. Green, MD
The Family Health Center of Western Queens
36-11 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11106
718-482-7772, 718-482-9648--fax

Alexander Green is an assistant attending physician and instructor of medicine at The New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. He received his MD from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and completed his residency training in internal medicine at Cornell. He currently practices at the Family Health Center of Western Queens and is a fellow of the National Health Service Corps, which provides primary care to underserved populations. As an attending at Cornell, he supervises a clinical rotation in community based medicine at the Family Health Center. He has taught courses on understanding the medical literature and on physical diagnosis. In collaboration with his colleague Dr. Emilio Carrillo, Dr. Green has developed a curriculum on cross-cultural medicine for internal medicine residents and Cornell medical students. He has presented the curriculum at several national meetings and as a guest lecturer for other internal medicine residency programs in New York. Ongoing research interests include patient perceptions of illness, folk-models, and missed appointments.  NEXT >

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