Edgar Corona
Getting started toward a career in the medical professions is a long road, and that's especially true if one is the first in his or her family to pursue higher education. Edgar Corona, a second-year student in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is on that road.
Corona grew up in Baldwin Park, Calif., the youngest of six children in a close-knit, working-class family. "As a low-income Latino community, Baldwin Park is vibrant and a great place to grow up," he says. "But it has a lot of challenges: food deserts, widespread childhood obesity and a school system that is put on lockdown fairly often."
By Romel Edmond - Originally Posted on 22 January 2016
Second year resident Sonia Morales, MD, has been given the distinguished honor of being named by the Academic Pediatrics Association (APA) a New Century Scholar.
Competition this year was particularly tough due to the high number of applicants. To be selected for the honor, applicants must be from an under-represented minority group having shown an interest in pursuing an academic career in pediatrics as well as an interest in pursuing scholarly activities in the areas of racial/ethnic health disparities, minority child health and development, sociocultural determinants of health, and cultural competency
Is it possible for a gay man to practice medicine?
The answer seems obvious, but sadly, there was a time when Michael Haymer, a third-year UCLA medical student, really wasn’t sure.
"I remember Googling the words, ‘Can a gay man be a doctor,’" said Haymer, who at the time was a struggling Orange County high school student. Having experienced rejection and discrimination from his peers after telling close friends that he was gay, he wondered if the disapproval and rejection he was experiencing would follow him as he pursued his professional calling. "I just didn’t know what to expect."
Fast forward nearly a decade, and Haymer, who graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. in 2010, is now the epitome of a budding doctor. Currently starting his third year of studies at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and its PRIME program, he is also charting a pioneering course to improve health care and the hospital experience for members of the LGBT community.
More than 400 cutting edge “New Research” posters were presented at the 2012 American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual meeting in Philadelphia this May. Each year the Office of Communications and Public Affairs chooses a handful of important projects to highlight at the annual New Research Press Briefing, representing a cross section of the most interesting things happening in research, academia, military medicine and industry and are authored by doctors, professors, medical students and scientists from around the world.
This year, David Tran, MS3 in the DGSOM-UCLA PRIME program, was selected to have his research project titled Exposure to Drug-related ‘People, Places, and Things’ via Online Social Networking Sites among Adolescents in Substance Abuse Treatment highlighted at the APA meeting. David was the only medical student presenting among the 400 MD and PhD presenters. David said that this project allowed him to have “the opportunity to use skills developed in medical school and from policy classes to help address mental health disparities in an underserved community…This has been a great opportunity to raise awareness on such an important topic.” Lawrence “Hy” Doyle, Director of the DGSOM PRIME curriculum, states that “one of the things about David is his strength in pursuing his goal...He has proved to be a wonderful PRIME success.”
Dr. Keith Heinzerling, David’s research mentor, hopes to continue working with David on this important research. “The research he presented at APA was some preliminary work looking at online exposure to drug-related cues that may trigger relapse among adolescents in a community-based substance abuse treatment program. This important work suggests that adolescents are exposed to drug-related content online but the study did not determine whether this exposure jeopardizes the teens’ drug treatment outcomes. David and I are planning a follow-up study to examine this and provide formative information we hope to use to design an intervention to provide adolescents with options for spending time online in ways that will empower them to not use drugs.”
David is currently pursuing his Masters of Public Policy and conducting research in the Department of Family Medicine as part of DGSOM-UCLA PRIME curriculum. His plans after graduation in 2013 are to pursue the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Congressional Fellowship and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program post- residency. He also wants to work with important public government figures to understand current and create new policies to advocate for underserved communities. He plans to stay in academia to continue his research on promoting diversity in medicine all the while actively recruiting students who are underrepresented in medicine to the health professional field.
Dr. James Maciel examines patient Aurora Franco as her son Jonathan and Husband Hector wait. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
Two very different documents define James Maciel's unusual life journey.
The older one is a photocopy of his court records from the late '90s, showing arrests for graffiti vandalism and possession of a handgun that landed him in Orange County Juvenile Hall and the Youth Guidance Center for six months. It is an unhappy souvenir of a teenage phase that could have led to hard-core gang life and all its dangers, he said recently.
The other document is his new UCLA medical diploma, earned at the relatively late age of 33 while he and his wife were raising their three children. The diploma is a passport to Maciel's upcoming residency in surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the Carson hospital that serves many low-income people and immigrants and is among the busiest in the state in treating gunshot wounds.
"The people I lived with and grew up with are the people I want to take care of. The indigent and the gang members," Maciel, who grew up in Santa Ana and now lives in Garden Grove, said in an interview. "It's just a natural fit for me."
PRIME Executive Director Lawrence "Hy" Doyle said Maciel was chosen for one of 18 slots from 850 applicants in part because "what intrigued us was that he was able to overcome so much." Maciel's family responsibilities also gave him "a focus in a way that many other medical students don't have," Doyle said.
-Excerpt from the LA Times, June 13th 2015
Read the full LA Times article »
Virginia Tancioco (M.D./MBA ’16)
A fourth grade reading level.
What do those words make you think of? A lack of education? Fourth graders?
What about inclusivity?
Virginia Tancioco (M.D./MBA ’16) is driven to change health care where it is needed most. Along with her classmate, Margaret Threadgill (M.D./MBA ’16), Tancioco is working on an app to educate expectant mothers about pregnancy — and it’s all written at a fourth grade reading level. They believe that since pregnancy isn’t limited to those who are highly educated, information shouldn’t be either.
But launching this app is not her only mission.
“Margaret and I are co-founding a nonprofit called Project Pregnancy and the app is only our first product. The project is looking to do many things for the underserved community, helping those who typically have poor outcomes, so that they will have healthier kids and will be healthier moms at the same time.”
What compels Tancioco to get involved on a deeper level with helping underserved mothers has a lot to do with what she’s seen during her experience as a fourth-year OB/GYN medical student at UCLA Medical Center, and from seeing what her mother went through while working and raising five children on her own. Combine this with her many travels on which she has found herself in need of medical help in countries where the health infrastructure was lacking and it’s easy to connect the dots that led her to co-found Project Pregnancy.
Read the full article on the UCLA Anderson Blog
From Left: Ebony King, Daniel Ybarra, Janani Srikantharajah, Ann Quan, Gabriel Lopez, Amarachi Okoro
Culturally Responsive Care (CRC)
Jeffrey Weisz, MD, former executive medical director, Southern California Medical Group (SCPMG), initiated the scholarship in 2004 in recognition of the leadership and support provided by retired SCPMG Medical Director, Oliver Goldsmith, MD, for the Culturally Responsive Care (CRC) Initiative. The CRC Initiative emphasizes the delivery of culturally responsive care to Kaiser Permanente's diverse patient population and aims to ensure that clinicians are prepared to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of patients.
SCPMG physicians and KP employees are providing care to an increasingly diverse membership which, like our richly evolving Southern California community, varies by age, sex, gender, ethnicity, race, physical ability, spirituality/religion, sexual orientation, and in many other ways. Culturally Responsive Care (CRC) is the delivery of high-quality care in a personalized way that takes into account and respects each of our diverse member's unique cultural needs and perspectives.
Oliver Goldsmith, MD, Scholarship
For the Promotion and Advancement of Culturally Responsive Care
Presneted to:
David Geffen School of Medicine/Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science Award Recipients
Ebony King
Ebony King is entering her fourth year at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also pursuing a Master's in Business Administration. Ebony plans to practice Obstetrics & Gynecology.
With an unwavering commitment and passion for working with the underserved, Ebony plans to continue to break down barriers and provide culturally sensitive care to her patients.
Daniel Ybarra
Daniel Ybarra is entering his fourth year at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also pursuing a Master's degree in Public Health with a focus on policy and management. Daniel plans to practice Family Medicine or Emergency Medicine.
Daniel looks forward to using his leadership skills and life experiences to foster an environment for providing culturally responsive care, which, he believes, is essential for removing barriers, fighting disease, and producing high-quality medical outcomes.
Janani Srikantharajah
Janani Srikantharajah is entering her fourth year at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where she is pursuing a Master's in Public Health as part of the Program in Medical Education (PRIME). Janani plans to specialize in Family Medicine.
Fortunate to have strong mentoring relationships through high school and college, Janani is committed to helping others throughout her career. She is honored to have the opportunity to provide care to diverse, underserved adults and children.
Ann Quan
Ann Quan is entering her fourth year at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Ann speaks Vietnamese fluently.
Ann plans to use her experiences - from childhood through medical school - to promote cultural awareness in increasing patient care and recovery among underserved adults and children.
Gabriel Lopez
Gabriel Lopez is entering his third year at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where he is pursuing his medical degree and a Master's in Public Health as part of the Program in Medical Education (PRIME). Fluent in Spanish, Gabriel plans to specialize in Pediatrics.
With his leadership skills and medical expertise, Gabriel looks forward to significantly improving the care we deliver to underserved communities through providing culturally and linguistically responsive care.
Amarachi Okoro
Amarachi Okoro is entering her fourth year at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where she is pursuing her medical degree and a Master's in Public Health as part of the Program in Medical Education (PRIME). Amarachi plans to specialize in Family Medicine.
As a result of her volunteer, leadership, and research experience, Amarachi is committed to developing tools to create health initiatives that will reduce health care disparities.
