R. Chiprut, 54; Latino-Focused Doctor

Dr. Roberto Chiprut, who co-founded a fast-growing Southern California physician network that provides care tailored to the Latino community, has died. He was 54.

Chiprut died Sunday from injuries suffered in a car accident outside Mexico City. His wife, Cesiah, was injured and remains in serious condition in a Mexico City hospital.

In 1996, Chiprut co-founded, with Jose J. Gonzalez, Latino Health Care, the largest medical network in Southern California catering to Latinos.

The network has grown from about 750 doctors in 1996 to more than 2,200 today in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties, as well as in the San Jose area. It was named the third fastest-growing Latino-owned and -operated business in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine.

Chiprut, a West Los Angeles internist who had been a clinical professor of medicine at UCLA, believed that Latinos were generally underserved and misunderstood by mainstream medicine.

He and Gonzalez, a health-care consultant, built a network that features independent, largely Spanish-speaking physicians working out of small neighborhood offices rather than large clinics.

Chiprut was born in Mexico City and received his medical training at the National University of Mexico, the University of Tel Aviv, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Temple, Texas, and the University of Miami.

While at Miami, Chiprut conducted research showing that bacteria could produce ulcers. He was the author of more than 50 articles in professional journals in his specialty of gastroenterology and co-edited, with UCLA professor David E. Hayes-Bautista, “Healing Latinos: The Art of Clinical Competence in Medicine,” a well-received book on treating Latino patients.

Two years ago, Chiprut began to limit his Los Angeles practice and returned to his native city because he felt his expertise was greatly needed there, Gonzalez said.

Chiprut helped to establish the Mexican Institute of Clinical Research in Mexico City, and served as its president and chief executive. He also was organizing the first Latin American Congress of Clinical Research, to be held in Mexico City later this month, to train medical professionals on how to conduct proper clinical trials.

“He was a good-hearted man with an entrepreneurial spirit and real cultural caring,” said Dr. Seymour Levine, a close friend and UCLA colleague.

Chiprut was especially proud of his role in founding the Mexico City institute, which he hoped would expand the range and raise the quality of clinical research in Mexico. Since its founding in 2000, the institute has run more than 30 clinical trials and treated several thousand patients.

In addition to his wife, Chiprut is survived by a daughter and two sons from a previous marriage.

Plans for a memorial service are pending.