The US population has experienced tremendous growth in the last century, with much of the growth contributed by what are considered minority populations. The US Census has projected that, by the year 2050, one of every two persons in the United States will belong to one of the following racial and ethnic groups: American Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, or Hispanic (1). In California, the proportion of these racial and ethnic groups had already reached 43 percent in 1990 (2) and was 48 percent in 1997 (3). For these reasons, national health surveillance systems and large, ongoing, federally funded, …