Johanna Shapiro, Desiree Lie, David Gutierrez and Gabriella Zhuang
Cultural competency instruction in medical education has been the thrust of several recent reports in the US and the UK. Evidence is growing that improving cross-cultural communication skills in healthcare providers is associated with better patient outcomes and has the potential to reduce health disparities and improve access to care. However, a recent systematic review evaluating cultural competence training of health professionals concluded that lack of methodological rigor made it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of specific educational interventions.