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Background & History
The Ethnic Physician Organization Network is a new coalition
of 41 of California's Ethnic Physician Organizations established
in June, 2002 at the first Ethnic Physician Organization
Summit held in Burlingame, California. The Summit
was a milestone of the Ethnic Physician's Project conducted
by the California Medical Association [CMA] Foundation
and funded primarily by The California Endowment and The
California Wellness Foundation.
This project is designed to identify strategies for building
the capacity of Ethnic Physician Organizations to reduce
health disparities and improve access to health care for
their communities through increased collaboration with
community organizations and policy advocacy in both the
public sector and within organized medicine, and address
diversity in the healthcare workforce and cultural competency.
In its initial stages, the Ethnic Physician Organization
Network has already achieved a number of significant accomplishments:
- During the Ethnic Physician Summit, Network members
coalesced around the health crisis in Los Angeles County
and quickly reached consensus on a collective response
to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
- During the same Summit, the Network defined its strategic
direction by identifying four initiatives to address
its goals.
- The members of the Network selected an interim Steering
Committee that has been guiding the development of the
organization in concert with the CMA Foundation.
- Most significant for the long-term development of
the Network, the participants at the Summit found common
ground as ethnic physicians in California and affirmed
the benefits that acting collectively would have for
the health of their respective communities.
Goals
Goals of the project include:
- Support a network of ethnic physician leaders to serve
as community health advocates throughout California.
- Strengthen the collaboration between ethnic physician
and community-based organizations.
- Deepen the relationship between physicians and community
members to improve the health of their communities.
- Encourage ethnic physician leadership development
at the local, regional, and statewide level.
- Address the issues of health disparities and access
to care.
- Increase the workforce diversity and cultural competency
of California's healthcare system.
- Encourage and identify young ethnic physicians to
become involved in ethnic physician organizations.
- Encourage ethnic physicians to expand their roles
in the local community beyond their role as clinicians.
- Provide the local community with the ethnic physician's
perspective on community health issues.
Organizational Structure  |
