Journal of general internal medicine
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Prior to enrolling in medical Spanish courses, students typically acquire their Spanish skills either through formal second language education only (L2 learners) or by being exposed to Spanish during childhood at home (heritage learners). ⋯ High heritage exposure and advanced college-level study are correlated with medical Spanish proficiency, but not all students with high heritage Spanish exposure or college-level coursework are ready for Spanish-concordant care. Future work should further evaluate the proposed three-category heritage language exposure indicator with a larger sample and the effectiveness of educational activities to enhance medical Spanish proficiency for both L2 and heritage learners.
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The aim of this study was to assess changes in the accessibility and utilization of electronic health record patient portals in recent years, focusing on whether these changes occurred equitably across different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. ⋯ An increased reliance on digital healthcare technologies has increased patient portal accessibility and utilization; however, increases have not been equitable across all demographic groups with many disparities persisting or worsening.
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Black people are more likely to have hypertension and report lower quality of care than White people. Patient-provider race concordance could improve perceived quality of care, potentially lessening disparities. ⋯ Older Black patients perceived greater quality of care if their providers were also Black.