She felt the need to tell a pediatrician once about something that's common among Asian babies that they are born with a sort of bruised look near the buttocks.
"Some doctors may think, 'Oh my goodness, what happened to the baby's butt?'" said Lin, who lives in Albuquerque. "(But) the doctor understood that's just how Asians are. If the physician already knows about it, if they are aware that certain races have certain characteristics, then they don't have any doubts."
The New Mexico task force is holding meetings around the state to gather input on what should be included in the training and hopes to have the curriculum in place by 2010, Flores said.
New Jersey's law is similar to New Mexico's, requiring that the state's medical schools provide instruction to their students as a condition of receiving a degree.
But the schools also must provide cultural competency training to licensed physicians who did not receive the training while they were in school something Flores said the New Mexico Legislature might tackle down the road.
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