"We should encourage medical students to pick up a language in addition to the scalpel." – Dr. Hector Flores


An advocate for cultural competency in health care, Dr. Hector Flores is a frequent panelist and speaker on topics such as Family Medicine, the need for cultural relevant care, and the effect of diversity on health care quality and outcomes.

Dr. Flores is a career-long advocate for the medically underserved, with particular focus on increasing accountability and performance in the health system, greater distribution and diversity in the health care workforce, and redesigning the health care system. He co-founded and currently serves as the medical director of the Family Care Specialists Medical Group in East Los Angeles, which has four offices strategically located in health-professions shortage areas.

Additionally, Flores serves as co-director of the White Memorial Medical Center (WMMC) Family Medicine Residency Program, which he established with five other Latino family physicians. The program provides young physicians with the training and skills to become excellent clinicians in shortage-area practices, to provide culturally responsive health services, and to achieve leadership positions in the medical community. Most of the program participants go on to practice family medicine in underserved communities statewide, and all are Board Certified Family Physicians.

Born in Mexico, Flores graduated from Stanford University and the UC Davis School of Medicine. He was a founding member of the California Latino Medical Association and is currently a member of the Latino Medical Student Association Leadership Advisory Board. Flores served on the Clinton Health Care Task Force and the California Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists. He was also a member of the UC Medical Student Diversity Task Force. He is an active member of the California Medical Association and the Blue Cross of California Statewide Physician Relations Committee. Flores has been a member of the National Health Service Corps and WellPoint/Anthem National Physician Advisory Committee.
Dr. Flores was honored with the Heineman Pulmonary Medicine Award and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation National Fellowship as well as numerous academic and civic awards including the 2007 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award from The California Wellness Foundation. He is a board certified Family Practitioner who strives to build a meaningful professional relationship with patients and their families from the first time they meet. He applies the Golden Rule to his practice and strives to be the kind of doctor he would want for himself. Fluent in Spanish, his Montebello, California clinic staff is also bilingual.

“Cultural competence is fundamentally based on the humanistic traditions of medicine and if we're open-minded about medicine being a lifelong learning endeavor, we need to understand that recognizing peoples’ cultural identities is also a lifelong endeavor. Sometimes our best teachers are our patients themselves.”- Dr. Hector Flores

Available in keynote, half-day, or full day formats, programs by Dr. Hector Flores include: Delivering Primary Care in a Community Clinic: Bridging the Gap; Health Care: Rethinking the Quality and Access Equation;Creating a Social Justice System One Community at a Time; Curriculum for Culturally Responsive Medical Care: A Guide to Cultural Competence Training; Diversity of the Healthcare Workforce: From Supply to Demand; Preparing Health Professionals for Cultural Competence in Organized Health Care Systems; Mythology and Opportunities of the Health Care System; Accountable Care: Aligning Primary and Specialty Care with Hospital Care; Do We Know Enough about Our Diverse Patients to Get Great Outcomes? and New Directions in Chronic Disease Management: Designing Culturally Competent Diabetes Programs.

   To Book Dr.Hector Flores as the speaker for your next event, call 310-937-2789 or e-mail speakers@bestkeynotes.com today!