Lack of Minority Physicians Hispanics, African Americans, and American Indians are grossly underrepresented in the U.S. physician workforce.(1) Communities with high proportions of African American and Hispanic residents are four times as likely as others to have a shortage of physicians, regardless, of community income. (2) Many minority doctors are inclined to serve members of their own ethnicity and the poor.(1) Patients are more likely to be cared for by physicians of their own ethnic background than by physicians of other backgrounds.(3) Hispanic physicians are more involved with the needs of Medicaid patients, and the generalists among them practice in geographic areas in which the poor and Hispanics were overrepresented in the population.(1) References 1. Fryer GE, Jr., Green LA, Vojir CP, et al. Hispanic versus white, non-Hispanic physician medical practices in Colorado. J Health Care Poor Underserved 2001;12(3):342-51. 2. Komaromy M, Grumbach K, Drake M, et al. The role of black and Hispanic physicians in providing health care for underserved populations. N Engl J Med 1996;334(20):1305-10. 3. Xu G, Fields SK, Laine C, Veloski JJ, Barzansky B, Martini CJ. The relationship between the race/ethnicity of generalist physicians and their care for underserved populations. Am J Public Health 1997;87(5):817-22. This research was supported by a National Library of Medicine (NLM) Publication Grant #5G08 LM07653-02 in support of the creation of a web site titled Factline: Tracking Health in Underserved Communities, www.factline.org. Saqi S. Maleque, MSPH, Researcher, Principal Investigator: Virginia Brennan, PhD.