ORLANDO, Fla. — The Asian American Health Initiative found Asian Americans face cultural and language barriers that may prevent them from getting access to available health care services, which can lead to untreatable conditions when diseases aren't diagnosed until later stages.

AdventHealth cardiologist Dr. Puxiao Cen says she is well aware of the obstacles many of her patients face, and has a unique ability to work through them. Cen practices a holistic approach with her patients, which she says gives her patients the power to preventatively promote good heart health. 

It’s also what older Chinese immigrants were used to in the mid-1800s, when they first came to the west coast of the United States, before patients like Hon Kwong were later introduced to American medicine when they came to the U.S. in the mid-1900s.

“The segregation made them stay in Chinatown or in the work site with the camp, and they had the herbal doctors there telling them what to do,” said Cen. “So they were not really in touch with modern medicine.”

Cen says that approach, balanced with her ability to speak Chinese, helps earn the trust of patients in the Asian American community.

“He said that the trust is a very important aspect so that he knows that even if he has questions he can ask me, and he knows that the issues are fully addressed during the visit,” said Cen, translating for Kwong.

Cen came to America from China at age 24.  She says she decided to become her family’s 8th-generation doctor — the first to begin practicing in America — so she could balance Chinese medicine with Western medicine, matching the holistic approach with sometimes necessary life-saving cardiac procedures.

“When you grow up in the household seeing your grandparents doing the same thing, caring for people, and a father who operated in the OR,” Cen said. 

Cen is also a skilled painter — her work lines the hallways of her cardiologist’s office in Altamonte Springs. She uses one of her paintings — of the heart’s blood vessels — to educate her patients.

“If you exercise on a routine basis, you eat healthy — a plant-based, whole-foods diet — you can encourage your heart to build its own tiny branches,” said Cen. 

When Shimin Hsieh came in for a routine check-up, she spoke mostly Chinese with Cen. They both can speak English, but spoke in Chinese to make sure they both had a full understanding of what was going on.

“Some words you just don’t find the English word that fits for it, but I can explain it to her, so that’s good,” said Hsieh.

And Cen said speaking the language the patient is most comfortable with can prevent the need for unnecessary medical tests that might be ordered if a doctor isn’t fully sure what they are dealing with.

“That is not just a cost issue, but also some tests will expose a patient to radiation, more scanning, more blood draw,” Cen explained. “That also, perhaps, gives some first-generation immigrants who don’t speak English the impression that so-called Western doctors, American doctors, only know how to do tests.”