Bending Health Toward Justice

ARC ACHIEVEMENTS

Alicia Fernández Earns 2024 Chancellor Award for Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership

UCSF Chancellors recognized ARC Executive Committee Member and Core Faculty and founder of the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence, Alicia Fernandez, MD, for her ongoing leadership 

 in improving access to health care and diversifying the medical profession through training and mentoring Latinx learners.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fernandez led efforts to provide public education and equitable care access, demonstrating the steadfast concern for popular health that is a hallmark of her work.

“This year’s awardees have all committed their time and effort far beyond their job scope or academic role to build bridges, dismantle barriers, and create spaces of innovation and connection,” announced the UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach. Each year the award recognizes and honors three individuals at UCSF—one faculty, one staff, one student/resident/postdoctoral scholar—who have demonstrated outstanding commitment and service to the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond the scope of their job, area of research, or training.

Melanie Molina Receives a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Award

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded ARC Mentored Faculty, Melanie Molina, MD, MAS, a prestigious Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Award (AMFDP) to support her work on emergency department tools to address patient’s social risks. The AMFDP recognizes only 10 scholars annually and offers four-year postdoctoral research awards to faculty from historically marginalized backgrounds who are committed to academic careers in academic medicine. 

Dr. Molina is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCSF and works clinically as an emergency physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Medical Center. Dr. Molina’s work and commitment to mitigate disparities in health care access, improve comprehensive emergency care for historically marginalized populations, and to create a safe and equitable environment in the field of emergency medicine, are more necessary now than ever. Congratulations Dr. Molina! 

Maria Chao Appointed Director of Research at UCSF’s Osher Center for Integrative Health

Congratulations to ARC Associated Faculty member, Maria Chao, DrPH, MPA, as she assumes the role of Director of Research at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health and Osher Foundation Endowed Chair in Research in Integrative Health! Read more about Dr. Chao's appointment here.

Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, recommended people trying to quit smoking tobacco try FDA-approved aids rather than shift to e-cigarettes as a cessation aid (AAMC News).

Margot Kushel, MD, remarks on the costs of leaving unhoused people behind as a rare disease poses a danger to people experiencing homelessness (Washington Post). She also noted that city-sanctioned homeless camps tend to be ineffective (San Francisco Chronicle). Margot attributed the high costs of addressing homelessness to decades of underfunding (Los Angeles Times) and lamented the high costs of jailing those who sleep on the street, compared to providing housing (Los Angeles Times).

Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD, MS emphasized that hormonal IUDs reduce the risk of endometrial cancer and only slightly increase the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer (CNN).

Leslie Suen, MD, MAS, explained that despite methadone’s proven efficacy and safety for OUD, it remains vastly underutilized due to outdated US policies restricting its use to opioid treatment programs (MedScape).

ARC Affiliated member Dhruv Kazi, MD, MS, noted that since more than half of U.S. adults who have taken GLP-1 receptor agonists found the therapy was difficult to afford, interventions to reduce economic barriers to access are urgently needed (U.S. News)

ARC OPPORTUNITIES & EVENTS

BHHI WEBINAR

The results of the 2024 election could bring shifts in homelessness policy and funding on the West Coast and beyond. What do these changes mean for the future of homelessness solutions?

We invite you to join the UCSF Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative for a special webinar where leading experts will examine the impacts of this election on policy, discuss the challenge of delivering evidence-based services in a changing environment, and explore paths forward for advancing effective homelessness solutions.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

12 - 1 PM PST

Virtual (Zoom)

Speakers include:

·      Margot Kushel, MD – Director, Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative

·      Marc Dones – Policy Director, Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative

·      Ann Oliva – CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness

·      Chione Lucina Muñoz Flegal, MCP – Executive Director, Housing California

Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity in Heart and Lung Diseases (PRISE-HL) T32 Program

In March 2023, the PRISE Center was awarded a T32 grant from The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The goal of the Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity in Heart and Lung Diseases (PRISE-HL) T32 program is to provide support to outstanding post-doctoral scholars with interdisciplinary training in implementation science and health equity approaches to help transform the uptake and delivery of evidence-based interventions for heart and lung diseases in clinical and community settings.

One-year training slots are available on a competitive basis to four qualifying trainees proposing implementation science research in NHLBI priority areas (heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders), with a focus on health disparities.

Behavioral and Social Science Training Institute Seminar

Qualitative Data Analysis Training: Organizing and Interpreting Qualitative Data

This intensive three-day workshop, co facilitated by BHHI's Director of Qualitative Research and Co-Director of Educational Programming, Michael Duke, PhD, offers a comprehensive hands-on introduction to the principles of qualitative data coding and analysis and is open to UCSF affiliates and non UCSF attendees alike.

Jan 9-11, 2025

UCSF Mission Bay Campus

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

ARC Faculty Collaborative Research

ARC Associated Faculty member Amy Beck, MD, MPH, and Executive Committee Member Alicia Fernandez, MD, collaborated on research papers examining the impact of the COVID pandemic on children's health behaviors and weight gain among children in San Francisco prior to and during the first 18 months of the COVID pandemic.

Bepo L, Nguyen OK, Makam AN. Disparities in Use of Novel Diabetes Medications by Insurance: A Nationally Representative Cohort Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2024 Nov;39(15):2987-2994. doi: 10.1007/s11606-024-08961-x. Epub 2024 Jul 31. PMID: 39085578; PMCID: PMC11576692. PubMed Citation

Hwong AR, Murphy KA, Vittinghoff E, Alonso-Fraire P, Crystal S, Walkup J, Hermida R, Olfson M, Cournos F, Sawaya GF, Mangurian C. Cervical Cancer Screening Among Female Medicaid Beneficiaries With and Without Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2024 Nov 8;50(6):1499-1507. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbae096. PMID: 38842724; PMCID: PMC11548919. PubMed Citation

Wesson P, Graham-Squire D, Perry E, Assaf RD, Kushel M. Novel methods to construct a representative sample for surveying California's unhoused population: the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Sep 11. Online ahead of print. PubMed Citation

Fuster M, Hipol S, Huang TT, Colón-Ramos U, Conaboy C, Abreu R, Mortillaro LC, Handley MA. Bridging Implementation Science and Human-Centered Design: Developing Tailored Interventions for Healthier Eating in Restaurants. Glob Implement Res Appl. 2024;4(4):446-458. doi: 10.1007/s43477-024-00133-7. Epub 2024 Sep 9. PMID: 39568618; PMCID: PMC11573827. PubMed Citation

Chao MT, Thompson-Lastad A, Swedlow P, Prathikanti S, Hartogensis W, Wolfe-Modupe F, Wennik J. Group-Based Integrative Pain Management in Primary Care: A Study Protocol for Multilevel Interventions to Address Health Disparities. Glob Adv Integr Med Health. 2024 Nov 19;13:27536130241302043. doi: 10.1177/27536130241302043. PMID: 39568795; PMCID: PMC11577469. PubMed Citation

Juarez Yoc JN, Khoong EC, Perron-Burdick M, Li B, Su G, Lyles C, Nijagal M. Lessons Learned from Offering Video Visits as an Alternative to Phone Visits: A Case Study from a Safety-Net Obstetrics Clinics. Telemed J E Health. 2024 Oct 25. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2024.0017. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39453439. PubMed Citation

Altman E, Schillinger D, Villas-Boas S, Schmidt L, Falbe J, Madsen KA. De-normalizing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption: effects of tax measures on social norms and attitudes in the California Bay Area. BMC Public Health. 2024 Nov 25;24(1):3263. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20781-6. PMID: 39581976; PMCID: PMC11587705. PubMed Citation

Ogbu-Nwobodo L, Fang A, Gill H, Saenz SR, Wallace P, Mangurian C, Folk JB. Implementing Quality Improvement Initiatives Within Community Psychiatry: Challenges and Strategies. Community Ment Health J. 2024 Nov 25. doi: 10.1007/s10597-024-01375-3. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39585597. PubMed Citation

Cervantes, Lilia; Powe, Neil R; Cukor, Daniel; Beaty, Brenda; Mcbeth, Lauren; Hasnain, Romana; Chonchol, Michel. Community Health Worker Intervention for Latinos Receiving Hemodialysis: A Randomized Controlled Trial: TH-PO1185. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 35(10S):10.1681/ASN.20248sfm65kv, October 2024. DOI: 10.1681/ASN.20248sfm65kv. Link to Article

Houghtaling B, Short E, Shanks CB, Stotz SA, Yaroch A, Seligman H, Marriott JP, Eastman J, Long CR. Implementation of Food is Medicine Programs in Healthcare Settings: A Narrative Review. J Gen Intern Med. 2024 Nov;39(14):2797-2805. doi: 10.1007/s11606-024-08768-w. Epub 2024 Apr 25. PMID: 38662283; PMCID: PMC11535093. PubMed Citation

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