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Building a Healthier Tomorrow |
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Dear friends,
2026 continues to bring grief and challenges. In 2025, we strove to continue our work while navigating a changed federal landscape. Our north star did not shift, and our commitment didn’t waiver. I am so proud of the authenticity, dedication, and strength ARC team members and our allies in the community have demonstrated throughout these challenges.
We acknowledge the painful realities facing immigrant communities today as we celebrate the untold contributions made by those who have come to the United States seeking refuge and hope, and who share their numerous talents with us.
This month and always, we honor the generations of Black Americans who challenged injustice, demanded equality, and transformed our nation. Their contributio05ns—born from struggle and strengthened by community—have paved the way for progress and possibility. As we reflect on their legacy, we re-commit ourselves to building a future worthy of their sacrifices.
At a moment when our work feels harder than ever, paying homage to the strength of all those on whose shoulders we stand renews our commitment and ability to move forward together with determination.
Our resolve is to build a future that ensures all people have the ability to thrive and live their healthiest life.
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ARC SPOTLIGHT
Faculty and Staff Making a Difference
| | Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, on Smoking and Tabacco Cessation | | | | |
Dr. Vijayraghvan's work spans individual, community, health system, and policy levels to expand access to smoking cessation services. She also partners with community organizations and healthcare systems to design intervention research, including collaborations with homeless shelters and supportive housing to implement smoking cessation programs and smoke-free policies for people experiencing homelessness.
Dr. Vijayraghavan co-directs a NIDA-funded postdoctoral training program at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, focusing on tobacco and substance use research, and serves as Professor in Residence at the Vijayaraghvan Lab. We caught up with her recently to learn more about what drives her research.
| | | Kenny Perez, MPH, on advancing data-driven solutions through BHHI initiatives | | | | Kenny Perez is the Co-Director of Research Operations at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI). He began working at UCSF in 2013 as an intern while attending UC Berkeley for his bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Peace and Conflict Studies, and has since served as Clinical Research Coordinator, Project Manager, and Senior Project Manager. Kenny’s primary professional and academic interests focus on using research methods to work with and for homeless populations and groups facing longstanding obstacles within the San Francisco Bay Area. | | Introducing ARC Innovation Leaders! | |
We’re thrilled to announce that Lisa Ochoa-Frongia, MD and Marlene Martin, MD have joined ARC as our inaugural Innovation Leaders faculty members!
ARC faculty are united in their commitment to translate research into action, including through deep collaboration with faculty partners who are leaders in developing and implementing innovative evidence-based health equity programs. By expanding the ARC faculty membership to include these Innovation Leaders we celebrate the critical partnerships and collaborations that create meaningful change.
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Marlene Martin, MD, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF, Founding Director of the nationally recognized Addiction Care Team (ACT) at San Francisco General Hospital, Director of Addiction Initiatives for the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence, and Physician Chief of Care Experience at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG).
Dr. Martin’s career has centered on advancing health equity and transforming systems of care for patients with substance use disorders, immigrants, and other marginalized communities through innovation, interprofessional collaboration, and community partnerships. She is the Founding Director of the Addiction Care Team (ACT) at ZSFG, where she has transformed substance use disorder care delivery, expanded access to evidence-based treatments, and improved outcomes for some of our most marginalized patients.
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Lisa Ochoa-Frongia, MD, is a clinician-educator and Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, in the Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). Dr. Ochoa-Frongia is a practicing primary care physician and Associate Program Director for the ZSFG Primary Care General Internal Medicine Track of the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency Program (SFPC). She is also the former Associate Medical Director of Richard Fine People's Clinic and Ambulatory Site Director for the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency at SFGH.
Dr. Ochoa-Frongia's scholarly interests include identifying and educating on best practices in the treatment of mental and behavioral health conditions in primary care, behavioral health integration in safety-net clinics, curricular development and mental health curricula for primary care providers. She is the PI for a 5-year HRSA Training Enhancement award for a project entitled Training for Residents Integrating Skills, Treatment, Advocacy and Resilience for Mental and Behavioral Health (TRI-STAR).
| | Dr. Martin and Dr. Ochoa-Frongia will present on their health equity focused implementation work on February 23, 2026, 3:10-4:30pm at Pride Hall followed by a panel discussion with their ARC research collaborators, Kelly Knight, PhD, and Adrian Aguilera, PhD. In addition to celebrating this ARC expansion, this event will help highlight the critical need for partnerships and collaboration to move from research findings to successful interventions and programs. | | Performance Improvement in Triage Design, Hemal Kanzaria, MD | | |
ARC Core Faculty member Dr. Hemal Kanzaria is part of a multidisciplinary ZSFG team who earned the 2025 Innovation Award from the California Association of Public Hospitals (CAPH) and Health Systems, in partnership with the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI).
Led by Dr. Christopher Peabody, the team’s project titled "Sustaining Change at the Front Door: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Emergency Department Triage Design," was dedicated to transforming patient triage.
By blending patient and staff insights with real-time data and a collaborative redesign process, the team re-imagined triage, enabling more patients to be treated directly from the waiting room while improving overall flow and responsiveness. Their work reflects the spirit of the Quality Leadership Awards (which include the Innovation Award): creative, equity-focused solutions that deliver measurable impact.
Dr. Kanzaria serves on the executive team at ZSFG as Chief of Performance Excellence, where he oversees the Kaizen Promotion Office and is responsible for advancing organizational strategy and performance improvement.
For detail about the award winning project, watch "Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center: Sustaining Change at the Front Door: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Emergency Department Triage Design."
| | Mel Molina MD, MAS, Selected as JAMA Editorial Fellow | | | | |
Dr. Melanie Molina is one of 10 individuals selected for the 2026 Cohort of the JAMA Editorial Fellows Program, a highly competitive national fellowship that received more than 600 applications. The six-to-12-month appointment provides immersive training in medical journalism, editorial decision-making, and peer review at one of the world’s leading medical journals.
Dr. Molina also successfully passed the American Board of Preventive Medicine certifying examination and is now a board-certified clinical informaticist.
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Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Ph.D., M.D., MAS, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the JAMA Network, and Endowed Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF spoke to the Impactful Leaders Podcast about leadership shaped by her experiences in clinical care, academic research, and scientific publishing.
Anil Makam, MD, MAS, spoke about new guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding GLP-1 use to manage obesity (Healthline) and was also a guest on A Good Omen podcast where he spoke about how epidemiological training transformed his clinical practice after two decades of work.
Margot Kushel, MD, mentioned housing first as a game-changer for getting people treatment by first getting them permanent supportive housing, saying to throw out this strategy would be “just silly, counterintuitive and dangerous.” (the Guardian). Dr. Kushel also spoke The Healthy Project podcast to explore why homelessness is fundamentally a housing problem—not a healthcare problem—and what this means for medical professionals and communities.
How a partnership between Amend and the Washington state Department of Corrections is helping make the Washington Corrections Center for Women a better environment for both staff and incarcerated people. (Gig Harbor Now)
| | ARC OPPORTUNITIES & EVENTS | |
Registration Open for the Language Access in Healthcare Symposium - West
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Language barriers are a critical, yet often overlooked, dimension of improving health care experiences and outcomes. We invite researchers, administrators, policymakers, and hospital leaders to learn about pivotal research, policies, and initiatives aimed at improving language access within health systems.
Join UCSF affiliates including MERC (Multiethnic Health Equity Research Center), the Latinx Center of Excellence, and ARC on Friday, April 10, 2026, for this convening focused on improving language access in healthcare.
This year’s symposium will feature talks from Dr. Gezzer Ortega and Ignatius Bau.
Attendance is open to the UCSF community and the public.
Please share with your networks and don’t forget to register here by March 27th.
Date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Time: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM PT (Breakfast and Lunch will be provided)
Location: UCSF Mission Bay, Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision
| | It’s About a Billion Lives Annual Symposium | | |
The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education launched “It’s About a Billion Lives” as an annual event to highlight the burden of the global tobacco epidemic, which claims about a billion lives each year. The event showcases innovative research, policy efforts, and strategies to address disparities in tobacco use, and strategies to counter industry tactics nationally and globally.
This year’s symposium will center on the theme “Together for Health Equity.” Now more than ever, advancing tobacco control and achieving health equity requires a shared commitment to amplify one another’s work, strengthen partnerships, and align our efforts to drive lasting impact.
In addition to the symposium’s traditional keynote speakers and research updates, this year students from the SF BRIDGE program, UC Merced, and the Smoke and Vape Free Scholars Initiative will present their own unique tobacco control research through a poster session and lightning talks. Additionally, the fourth annual UCSF Emerging Health Equity Scholar Awardees will present their work.
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Keynote Speaker, Dr. Andy Tan
- Research presentation from the 2026 UCSF Emerging Health Equity Scholar Awardees will be delivered in the afternoon.
Presented by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, UCSF’s Multiethnic Health Equity Research Center, and UCSF’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, the symposium is open to the UCSF community and public to attend.
Friday, April 17, 2026
UCSF Robertson Auditorium
More information about award eligibility, application materials, selection criteria, and the Symposium can be found at the MERC website.
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| UCSF Health Services Research Symposium | | |
You're invited to be part of the fourth in-person annual UCSF Health Services Research Symposium on May 13, 2026. Abstracts focused on health services research are being accepted until February 27.
UCSF faculty, trainees, and research teams from any department may submit one or more abstracts describing health services research projects. You must have a faculty, staff or trainee position at UCSF to submit an abstract. Health services research is a multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviors affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and ultimately, our health and well-being.
All abstracts will be considered for both podium (oral) presentation and an
in-person poster session. Podium talks will be 5-7 minute lightning talks and guidance will be provided if you are selected for a podium talk. Posters will be displayed throughout the conference and there will be specific times featuring the posters to encourage dialogue and networking.
The call for abstracts closes at 11:59 pm PST on Friday, February 27, 2026. You will be notified by email if your abstract is selected no later than April 13, 2026. A team may present more than one abstract but there must be a different presenting author for each abstract submitted.
The presenting author is the corresponding author and must have a faculty, staff or trainee position at UCSF and is also the point of contact for all communication. Submissions must contain the following:
- Title
- Full name of presenting author
- Email address of presenting author
- Organizational affiliation of presenting author
- Full name(s) of co-authors, if applicable
- Source(s) of funding for research
- Research objective, study design, principal findings, conclusions and implications for policy and practice
- Abstract text of no more than 350 words
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Prost SG, Archuleta AJ, Golder S, Bullman DB, Williams B. A descriptive study of chronic and mental illness multi- and comorbidity among older adults incarcerated in a state prison system. Int J Prison Health (2024). 2026 Jan 26;22(1):99-116. doi: 10.1108/IJOPH-05-2024-0027. PubMed Citation
Seijo LL, Patrick E, DeDent AM, Su G, Thakur N. Delivering Community-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Patients With COPD in a Safety-Net Health Care Setting: The COPD Wellness Program. Respir Care. 2026 Feb;71(2):121-130. doi: 10.1177/19433654251377041. PubMed Citation
Randa SN, Nouri S, Walling AM, … Sudore RL. Errors in Electronic Health Record Advance Care Planning Documentation: It's a Patient Safety Issue. J Palliat Med. 2025 Nov 17. doi: 10.1177/10966218251395440. PubMed Citation
Chiang AY, Tancredi DJ, Begna H, … Schwarz EB. Health Insurance and Racial and Ethnic Differences in Postpartum Contraception in the United States. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2025 Dec 1. doi: 10.1177/15409996251403450. PubMed Citation
Palmer NR, Potter MB, Mansur S, … Harrison JD. Engaging community health center advisors to identify research priorities for health equity. J Clin Transl Sci. 2025 Oct 28;9(1):e253. doi: 10.1017/cts.2025.10179. PubMed Citation
Frazer K, Vijayaraghavan M. Syndemic lives of women who smoke and experience homelessness: secondary analysis of US qualitative data. Health Promot Int. 2025 Oct 30;40(6):daaf216. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaf216. PubMed Citation
Plantinga LC, Fitzpatrick J, Dey M, … Yazdany J. Perceived and Objective Physical Function in Two U.S., Population-Based Cohorts of Adults with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. J Rheumatol. 2026 Jan 15:jrheum.2025-0857. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.2025-0857. PubMed Citation
Avilez L, Wong J, Olazo K, Patel S, Pasick R, Somsouk M, Sarkar U. Barriers to Timely Colonoscopy Completion Following Abnormal Fecal Immunochemical Test Results in a Safety-net System. J Gen Intern Med. 2026 Jan 20. doi: 10.1007/s11606-025-10116-5. PubMed Citation
Suen LW, Samayoa E, Spinelli MA, … Knight KR, … Coffin PO. "It's like scratching at the door": Experiences of outpatient buprenorphine low dose initiation among people using fentanyl. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2026 Jan 27:209893. doi: 10.1016/j.josat.2026.209893. PubMed Citation
See all recent ARC-authored publications
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