Alexander Green, MD, MPH

Dr. Alexander Green is Co-Founder of Quality Interactions, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Investigator in the Division of General Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Navigating Healthcare During Ramadan: A Guide for Clinicians

Developing cultural competency is essential for providing effective and empathic patient care. For clinicians, understanding religious practices such as fasting during the period..

The Impact of Health Literacy on Health Disparities

Healthcare professionals are notorious for throwing around complex medical concepts and jargon that confuses patients rather than helping them understand what's happening to them...

Language Access Plans for Healthcare Organizations

Until recently, many hospitals and healthcare organizations lacked formal interpreter services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Commonly, these facilities..

How To Build Patient Trust in Healthcare

Relationships between patients and healthcare professionals are based on the same qualities necessary for any relationship to be successful. These include respect, good..

Cultural Barriers in Healthcare & Communication Techniques to Explore Them

Culture shapes almost every aspect of our lives, including our beliefs, customs, and daily interactions with the world and people around us. However, we often oversimplify..

Explaining Cultural Competence vs Cultural Awareness

Cultural competence is a term that has been in use since the 1980s to describe the ability of professionals to provide effective, high-quality services to people from diverse..

Culturally Competent Care in Telemedicine [Checklist]

Telemedicine has the potential to reshape the delivery of healthcare and improve health equity. Just as with in-person interactions, cultural competency is an essential skill to..

Cultural Competency and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable among us. This includes the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. It also includes..

Cultural Awareness in Healthcare: A Checklist

Culture is a complex concept. It includes people’s beliefs, values, behaviors, and ways of understanding their world. In medicine, managing cultural differences—including..

Border Walls: Cultural Competency and Considerations for the Hispanic/Latino Population

Culture has a profound impact on healthcare decision-making for Latino individuals and families. Yet Latino cultural beliefs are rarely understood or integrated in American..

The Time Objection: Cross-Cultural Care and the Ever-Shortening Office Visit

I've given hundreds of presentations on culturally-competent care to busy clinicians around the world. At the end of my talk, someone always asks the "time question." I know..

3 Simple Ways to Alleviate Patient Mistrust

Trust in the healthcare system is at an all-time low—only 34% of Americans have “great confidence” in medical leaders, as compared to 73% in 1966. So if you are a health..