Psychology and medical education: collaborations for culturally responsive care.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing attention to the vast and alarming health disparities in the United States. This paper explores provider factors in health disparities, considering the role of medical education in training health care providers to practice culturally responsive health care toward a diminution of health inequalities. The paper begins with a description of culturally responsive care along with an overview of the key elements of a comprehensive curriculum for health care providers in this arena. Next, the paper explores the key contributions from the field of psychology to collaborative instruction of health care providers in the areas of attitudes/awareness, knowledge and skills components of culturally responsive care. Finally, the paper concludes with a description of collaborative teaching from a family medicine residency program where a 33-h 'cultural medicine curriculum within the curriculum' is delivered over the course of 3 years.