Patient specific Education and diversity

Most of the EMR's are starting to recognise Diversity in creating patient Demographics.

One of the fastest growing demographic groups in our society are bi/multi racial category.Traditionally language defines us more than the ethnicity.It is true even in America for the new immigrants.As the immigrants become more English language proficient. Ethnicity start taking priority over language, suddenly Colombians who themselves identify as the people of that nation start seeing themselves as black ,white or native people.In a strange way we find that as Moroccans and french speaking Quebec people loose their french they are lumped away from each other with Germans and may be with blacks.

The main reason for this strange mix of data is US Census which has been taken every ten years from the inception of our nation.This flawed census ethnic data is least useful for Meaningful use in creation of EMR and its mandate.We recognise that Irish whites from Boston may have least in common with Hasidic Jew from southern Spain. This need to collect a detailed ancestry record is an effort to find our unique health traits and help the patient(us).

I was told by a very reputed heart Surgeon of Indian descent that natives of India in US should lower their Cholesterol below 160 as we have narrower arteries .This type of information while not currently available could be norm if we collected ethnicity specific data for the patients.

An anomaly has been found the Hispanics Live five years longer than Whites in America even while the health care availability and Obesity is worse in their population.It is also an opportunity for us to study what factors make it possible for them to live longer and could we duplicate those conditions.It has been speculated that diet though high in meat and fat content may play some role as well as involvement in the society.

For Diversity organizations it is a challenge as well as opportunity to be part of the Discussion of EMR software for better outcome.

LET US NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.