Why aren’t there
more Filipino American doctors?
A few weeks ago, a good friend texted me saying that she was
asked a really thoughtful question during one of her residency interviews. The
interviewer noted that my friend is Filipino and asked her, “I noticed there
aren’t a lot of Filipino doctors, so how has your cultural background
influenced your approach to patient care?”
It is true that we have an abundance of Filipino nurses in
our healthcare system, but what about doctors? Filipinos fall under the larger
umbrella of Asian Americans, who are not considered to be underrepresented in
medicine, but Filipinos are an absent minority. According to AAMC’s 2019
Diversity in Medicine report, 17.1% of active U.S. physicians identify as
Asian. However, only 4.6% of Asian physicians in the U.S. identify as Filipino.
This underrepresentation is also evident in medical education. Filipinos
consisted of 4.3% of Asian applicants to U.S. medical schools during the
2018-2019 academic year. This means that less than 1% of total applicants
identified as Filipino.
This is the truth we face, even though Filipino Americans
are the third largest Asian subpopulation and one of the fastest growing ethnic
minorities in the United States. In fact, Filipino Americans make up nearly a
quarter of California’s Asian American population, but only about 6% of the
UC’s medical school matriculants. The majority of Filipino physicians in
California are international medical graduates.
It is incredibly important for Filipino patients to have
access to more physicians who look like them and understand their culture,
language, and traditions. The world of medicine is extraordinarily difficult
for patients to navigate but having a provider who identifies with their
specific cultural needs can greatly improve healthcare outcomes. This is
especially crucial since Filipinos suffer from diabetes at higher rates than
non-Hispanic whites and have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors
such as hypertension and obesity compared to other Asian Americans.
I’m proud to identify as a Filipino American woman who will
be entering the workforce as a pediatric resident physician in a few months. I
wish I could say that I had inspiring Filipino faculty or attendings who guided
me along the way, but I didn’t. However, I’m thankful that I found a group of
intelligent, kind, and like-minded classmates in medical school who also shared
the goal of wanting to become culturally competent Filipino American
physicians.
As for my friend, she effortlessly answered her
interviewer’s question by talking about applying her parents’ immigrant values towards
advocating for her patients and wanting to serve as representation for Filipino
youth who may be interested in pursuing a career in medicine. I recognize that
we have a long way to go, but I can’t help but be excited and hopeful for future
nanays and tatays to see doctors who look just like them.
Briana Mancenido, M.D. Candidate
Drexel University College of Medicine Class of 2021
Sources:
http://greenlining.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ClosingDataGapsAANHPIUCMedicalSchoolDiversity.pdf
Fuller-Thomson, R.
(2017). Diabetes among non-obese Filipino Americans: Findings from a large
population-based study. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(1), e36–e42. https://doi.org/10.17269/CJPH.108.5761
Borja‐Hart, G.
(2019). Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk assessment and predictors
of statin use in Filipino‐American Women. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and
Therapeutics, 44(4), 632–639. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12837
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