Minority doctors in short supply in California

San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 2008

A new study shows a glaring gap between the number of California doctors of color compared with the state's ethnically diverse population. For example, The University of California- San Francisco study found that out of nearly 62,000 practicing doctors in California, only 5% are Latino even though Latinos comprise a third of the state's total population. The disparity is alarming because minority physicians are far more likely to practice primary care medicine and work with poor or uninsured patients in communities with a chronic shortage of physicians.