Achieving Cultural Competency: A Case-based aproach to training health professionals

About the Editors and Associate Editors (see below)
Table of contents

Editors

Lisa Hark, PhD, RD, is a renowned family nutrition expert with over 20 years of experience in nutrition counseling and promoting the benefits of healthy eating in children and adults. As Director of the Nutrition Education and Prevention Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia for the past 18 years, she is a leading nutrition educator of medical students and doctors. She is currently Project Director for the Cultural Competence Health Disparities Training Program", a five-year grant funded by the NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Recently, she was the host for season one of the new television series "Honey, We're Killing the Kids", which airs on TLC. Dr. Hark is the editor-in-chief of numerous books including Medical Nutrition and Disease: A Case-Based Approach (Blackwell Publishing), which is now in its 3rd edition and used in many medical schools, physician assistant, nursing and dietetic programs in the US and around the world. In 2004, she edited Cardiovascular Nutrition: Disease Management and Prevention (American Dietetic Association). In 2005 and 2006 she co-authored Nutrition For Life and The Whole Grain Miracle Diet (DK Publishing). Her current book, The Complete Guide to Nutrition in Primary Care, (Blackwell Publishing), will be released in 2007 and is aimed at primary care clinicians, nurses, physician assistants, and nutritionists.

Horace DeLisser, MD: After receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, he remained at the University to complete his internal medicine residency and pulmonary medicine fellowship, as well as post-doctoral research training. He is currently a pulmonary and critical care specialist and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. Scientifically, Dr. DeLisser has a program of independently funded research that is focused on the cells that line blood vessels (endothelial cells) and their activity during inflammation and the formation of new vessels. Dr. DeLisser has been also been very active in medical education with a particular interest in cultural competency. He is a course director of the first year medical student course, "Culture and Communication" and is the Co- investigator for the NIH, NHLBI funded grant "Cultural Competence Health Disparities Training Program". He precepts and teaches in several of the medical school's courses on humanism and professional. Additionally, Dr. DeLisser helped to develop the course, Spirituality in Medicine. In recognition of his contributions to medical education, he earned the Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award, a First Year Medical School, Class, Outstanding Teacher Award, a Penn Pearls Teaching Award and the 2005 Robert L. Mayock - Alfred P. Fishman Teaching Award.

Gail Morrison, MD, FACP is Professor of Medicine, Vice Dean for Education (1995-present) and Director of the Office of Academic Programs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. For 20 years, she has been actively involved in directing educational programs in the Department of Medicine, the School of Medicine and nationally, in the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) organization. She has served as the associate chairman of the Department of Medicine for medical student education (1986-1995), and the associate dean for clinical curriculum (1991-1995), in the School of Medicine. Dr. Morrison earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her internship/residency from Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and Georgetown University Hospital. After serving as Staff Associate at the NIH in the NHLBI (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute) for one year, she completed a fellowshi

Her role as a visionary leader in medical education resulted in her appointment in 1995 as the Vice Dean for Education and Director of Academic Programs for the School of Medicine. She was responsible for the successful implementation of an innovative, integrated and modular four year curriculum (Curriculum 2000T) in 1997 for the School of Medicine. In addition, she implemented an electronic adjunct to Curriculum 2000T, called Virtual Curriculum 2000T that allows students to access all of their lectures (audio and video), images and slides on demand, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, via the internet. An on-line evaluation system, Simulation Suite, and Standardized Patient Program, have added additional breadth to the new curriculum. Since 1990, Dr. Morrison, has been the PI or Co/PI on seven educational grants/contracts totaling $3.5 million. Her Nutrition textbook, innovative for its case-based approach, was the result of grants from the Heinz Endowment and National Cancer Institute and is being used by more than 50 medical schools in the U.S. to teach their nutrition curriculum.

Associate Editors

Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH FACP is the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She completed medical school and a residency in Internal Medicine at NJMS and a Master's Degree in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health, Rutgers and UMDNJ. She has worked with Rutgers University's Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience as a Gustav Heninburg Civics Fellow and the Center for Health Beliefs and Behavior. She is a member of the Northeast Consortium on Cultural Competency and Medical Education that is comprised of 12 medical schools in the Northeast region and participated in getting legislation for cultural competency passed in the State of NJ. Dr. Salas-Lopez is a member of the Latino Health Advisory Committee in New Jersey, Past Chair of the Commission of New Jersey's Office of Minority and Multicultural Health in the New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services and serves on the Governor's Hispanic Advisory Council Health Subcommittee and Healthcare Access Study Commission. She was appointed to the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners in 2005. Dr. Salas-Lopez has also served on the National Institute of Health study sections with a special focus on health literacy and access to care. She is a nationally recognized speaker and educator in the area of cultural competency and medical interpretation. Most recently, she established a program to train bilingual hospital employees to be medical interpreters, a program now recognized by the State of New Jersey and the hospital associations as a model program. She has published numerous articles on cultural competency and medical interpretation and co-directed a new course on cultural competency at New Jersey Medical School. Her research focuses on community health and access to care, disparities in healthcare, and the impact of culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare services to better serve our diverse populations.

Ana Nunez, MD is a nationally recognized internist with expertise in cultural competency education with specifically as it relates to gender and ethnically based health disparities. She is the Principle Investigator for the five year grant on Cultural Competency Medical Education Training Program at Drexel University College of Medicine funded by the NIH, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Dr. Núñez is also the Principle Investigator on the Drexel College of Medicine Center of Excellence in Women's Health. She has published about cultural competency education in Academic Medicine as well as in former Surgeon General David Satcher's textbook on Multicultural Medicine and Health Disparities. Her curriculum was cited in the Institute of Medicine's report as an example of effective instructional strategies in their 2002 Report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Her training in health professional education, health services research and health policy have influenced her curricular programming in sex and gender medicine and health disparities. She has numerous educationally focused health service research grants addressing the impact of gender and ethnicity as it relates to effective health care delivery. She has written about Multicultural Considerations in Women's Health in the Medical Clinics of North America. She is created an innovative comprehensive educational textbook on women's health over the lifespan in Healthy Women/ Healthy Lives. Her work has been replicated nationally and she has advised academic health centers, residency programs and health professional educators in strategies for enhancing cultural competency education. She is also on the Vice President of the Northeast Consortium on Cross Cultural Care and Medical Practice, Inc. a multi-institutional consortium of leaders in education and clinical practice who collaborate to promote cross cultural system-wide initiatives.

Darwin Deen, MD is a nationally-recognized family physician who has been working with a diverse patient population for thirty years. He is Professor of Clinical Family and Social Medicine and Director of Medical Student Education in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Dr. Deen graduated from the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture at the University of New Hampshire where he began studying the science of nutrition. He obtained a Masters of Science degree from the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and then an MD degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed a Family Medicine Residency at Montefiore Medical Center's Residency Program in Social Medicine, where he developed nutrition curriculum for primary care residents. From 1998-2003 he served as co-investigator for the Nutrition Academic Award Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a federally funded program to improve the nutrition teaching throughout the 21 medical schools funded by the program. He co-edited the Physician's Curriculum in Clinical Nutrition: Primary Care, published by The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Group on Nutrition, and is associate editor on the 3rd edition of Medical Nutrition and Disease, from Blackwell Publishing. His current book, The Complete Guide to Nutrition in Primary Care, (Blackwell Publishing), will be released in 2007 and is aimed at primary care clinicians, nurses, physician assistants, and nutritionists.

Desiree Lie, MD, MSED is Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, University of California, Irvine and has developed and implemented integrated curricula in evidence-based medicine, cultural competency, integrative medicine and communication for medical students, residents and faculty. She has over 20 years experience as a seasoned clinical instructor, course director for Doctoring courses and content theme director. She completed her residency training at Bristol Children's Hospital and the John Radcliffe Hospitals, Oxford, England, a Masters in Medical Education at the University of Southern California and a fellowship in underserved healthcare at the University of California, San Diego. She has worked with several national groups on developing curricula including the Physician's Curriculum in Clinical Nutrition: Primary Care, published by The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Group on Nutrition, complementary and alternative medicine curricula with the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Collaborative on Multicultural Education for the Health Professions as a K-award scholar. She has published in medical education journals on the evaluation of content and development and validation of assessment tools for use by health professions educators.

Olivia Carter-Pokras, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Maryland College Park School of Public Health. Dr. Carter-Pokras has conducted health disparities research in the Federal government and academia for more than 25 years. She has an extensive history of ensuring that the community has a voice in research conducted at the national and local levels. The previous Director of the Division of Policy and Data in the DHHS Office of Minority Health; Dr. Carter- Pokras has been recognized by the Surgeon General, Assistant Secretary for Health and Latino Caucus of the American Public Health Association for her career achievements to improve racial and ethnic data and develop national health policy. Dr. Carter-Pokras is currently the Principal Investigator for a NHLBI cultural competency and health disparities academic award at the University of Maryland, and a state tobacco disparities evaluation contract. She is currently conducting health assessments of Latinos in Baltimore and Montgomery County in close partnership with local government and community- based organizations. Dr. Carter-Pokras has published over 50 journal articles, Federal government publications, book chapters and books, and her research has played a critical role in national recognition of health disparities experienced by the Latino community. Dr. Carter-Pokras is an elected fellow and member of the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology, and elected member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Carter-Pokras lectures on epidemiologic methods, cultural competency and health disparities to medical, dental and public health students.

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