July 25, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – UAB researchers striving to understand and eliminate racial/ethnic health disparities in Alabama and beyond have created a DVD to help physicians and health care providers better relate to their Latino patients.

“Latino immigrants face a number of barriers to seeking curative and preventive health care,” said Isabel Scarinci, Ph.D., M.P.H., co-leader of Community Outreach and Training for the Minority Health and Research Center and professor of Preventive Medicine at UAB. “While our focus has been on educating immigrants about our health care system, we realize that we also need to educate the providers to bridge the gap and eliminate the barriers.”

The major barriers include language and cultural differences, as well as differences between the health care systems in the United States and Mexico (where most of the Latino immigrants come from).

The DVD provides information on Latino culture, highlights the major differences in the health care systems and describes ways health care providers can make their Latino patients feel more comfortable.

The UAB Division of Preventive Medicine collaborated with UAB CME to create the DVD as part of a larger program, Sowing the Seeds of Health. Sowing the Seeds of Health was funded by the National Cancer Institute, and started with the primary mission of reducing rates of cervical and breast cancer among Latina immigrants.

For more information and for copies of the DVD, contact Allison McGuire at (205) 996-2923 or e-mail amcguire@uab.edu. To view the DVD online, visit www.dopm.uab.edu/sowingtheseeds.