INDIANAPOLIS — A group of IU School of Medicine Residents are raising awareness about the lack of Latino representation in their field.
Oct. 1 marks the second annual National Latino Physician's Day.
Stephanie Cortes is a third year EM Resident. She knew she wanted to become a doctor at a young age.
"Actually, it was an encounter in the emergency department," said Cortes. "My mom's undocumented, she raised three kids on her own, she didn’t speak any English, we didn’t know how to navigate the US system. It was actually one ED physician who took the time and provided us with resources so that we could get insurance."
Cortes sees the need for Latino physicians on a daily basis.
"When I walk into a room in the emergency department, especially Eskenazi where 50% of patients speak Spanish, I tell them I’m the doctor and there’s a relief there. They tell me things that they wouldn’t tell other doctors," said Cortes.
In Indianapolis, only 13% of the population is Latino.
"We only have 6% Latinos physicians and there’s only 2% Latinas physicians, so this is important to have representation," said Eleazar Montalvan, an Internal Medicine Resident.
Montalvan, Cortes and another resident decided to created the first LatinX Association for residents and fellows in the country. They started it a year ago to bring the Hispanic community together.
"This was to create spaces for us," said Montalvan.
"Because there’s very few of us, so when it’s just our program there may be just one in that program. There’s not a single EM faculty that's Latino, and there’s 200 faculty in my program so it just created a community," said Cortes.
The group hopes to continuing recruiting more faculty and interns and get more Latinos interested in the medical field.
"They have to see people like us," said Montalvan.
