As part of the Academy's Health Disparities Initiative, Joshua Evans, a second year medical student at UNC, conducted interviews with community members in Alamance County.  During the interviews he discussed healthcare, culture and the patient/healthcare provider relationship.  The purpose of the interviews was to raise awareness about the cultural gap that can exist between healthcare providers and their patients. 

He took the video clips from the interviews and posted them on a website for other providers to access.  It is his hope that these community members’ experiences will enlighten physicians to the need of providing culturally appropriate care to their patients.   

The website can be accessed at http://med.unc.edu/~ejoshua/.  

Joshua also discussed with two of the Health Disparities Initiative's pilot practices the importance and need to collaborate with organizations in the local Latino community.  Both of the practices he worked in had large Latino patient populations.  He made a list of community resources that have potential influence in the Latino community and he encouraged the practices to try and connect with these groups.  The list includes churches, Latino advocacy groups, tiendas (Hispanic markets) and local community colleges. 

 It is through these community connections that Joshua hopes healthcare providers can gain a sense of the Latino community and culture and their barriers to care such as, language, transportation, and lack of access to services.  With increased physician knowledge of the patient population, patient compliance and health outcomes will also increase.