Alliance of Multicultural Physicians

Our Mission: To provide leadership and a collective voice for racial/ethnic minority physicians to advocate for better health outcomes for our patients and our communities.

Key Goal: Reduce the burden of disease and the impact of conditions that adversely affect Alaskan Native, American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and other medically underserved patients and communities; support providers who provide care for these patients, and advocate for funding of research and other initiatives that will lead to better understanding, interventions, and treatments for our communities.

Diabetes

Diabetes ​affects 9.4 percent of the U.S. population according to the Centers for Disease Control, and:
  • Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander patients have a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes as compared to the White population. These population groups also and have a higher rate of undiagnosed diabetes compared to Whites.
  • Over 50% of Asian Americans with diabetes are unaware of their disease. Asian Americans develop diabetes at a lower body mass index than any other population, and Pacific Islanders have some of the highest diabetes rates in the world.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native adults are 2.4 times as likely as White adults to be diagnosed with diabetes.
  • Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are 2.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as the White population
  • Over 50 percent of Asian Americans with diabetes are unaware they have it; Asian Americans develop diabetes at a lower body mass index (BMI) than any other population, and Pacific Islanders have some of the highest diabetes rates in the world.
  • Hispanic adults are 1.7 times more likely than White adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician
  • African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for lower limb amputations due to complications from diabetes, compared to Whites.
  • African Americans are twice as likely as Whites to die from diabetes.
  • American Indians and Alaska Native women are twice as likely to die from diabetes as White women.
  • Hispanic women are 1.5 times as likely as White women to die from diabetes.