Models & Mentors Archive

In Conversation with Mimi Doohan, MD

Grace Chen Yu's interest in community medicine has roots reaching back to her undergraduate experience at Harvard volunteering at a local Chinese hospital. Today she teaches and practices at the Stanford-affiliated family medicine program at San Jose-O’Connor Hospital. More »

 
Grace Chen Yu

Urologist Linda Shortliffe, MD, rose to academic leadership shaped by her family’s example

In addition to his clinical and research activities, Andrew Patterson, MD, PhD, associate professor of anesthesia, spends time abroad in Guatemala, Southern Peru, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia and Rwanda providing health care for underprivileged children and adults. More »

 
Linda Shortliffe, MD

In Conversation with Mimi Doohan, MD

Medical school alumna Mimi Doohan recounts her personal journey into medicine. She is the executive director of Doctors Without Walls, a Santa Barbara nonprofit dedicated to providing volunteer medical care to the homeless. More »

 
Mimi Doohan, MD

In Conversation with Andrew Patterson, MD, PhD

In addition to his clinical and research activities, Andrew Patterson, MD, PhD, associate professor of anesthesia, spends time abroad in Guatemala, Southern Peru, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia and Rwanda providing health care for underprivileged children and adults. More »

 
Andrew Patterson

In Conversation with Clarence Braddock, MD, MPH

Clarence Braddock, MD, MPH is a member of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and the director of Stanford's Practice of Medicine course. Dr. Braddock is recognized as a national expert on informed decision making and doctor-patient communication. More »

 
Clarence Braddock, MD, MPH

In Conversation with Jacob Eapen, MD, MPH

Stanford alum Jacob Eapen, MD, MPH, is a longtime advocate of grassroots health initiatives at home and abroad. As a health advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR, Eapen was responsible for the health care of 45,000 Indo-Chinese refugees. Through his work as a pediatrician for Alameda County Health Services, Eapen reaches out to medically underserved children in Oakland and Newark. He has also served as a guest lecturer for a number of community health courses at Stanford.
More »

 
Jacob Eapen, MD, MPH

In Conversation with medical student Emiley Chang

Though only in her second year of medical school, Emiley Chang has already distinguished herself as a committed activist, undertaking a number of projects in community health and public service. Most recently she and other Stanford students were instrumental in getting a bill before the State Senate that would allow for the redistribution of unused prescription medications. More »

  
Emiley Chang

In Conversation with Dana Weintraub, MD

Whether addressing childhood obesity or health-care disparities, Dana Weintraub, MD, clinical instructor for general pediatrics, works to connect the problems of her patients to larger community trends. She currently serves as the project director of the Sports to Prevent Obesity Randomized Trial (SPORT) and as the medical director of the Family Advocacy Program. More »

 
Dana Weintraub, MD

Medical students’ proposal could become state law

After reviewing 129 submissions, local California State Senator Joe Simitian (D-11th District) announced on Mar. 31 five winners of the annual “There Oughta Be A Law” contest, including a team of five first-year Stanford medical students. The contest, spearheaded by Simitian, asked Californians to send in ideas that they want to see become state laws. More »

 
Medical student Josemaria Paterno

Medical student links indigent patients to social services

Second-year medical student Prasanna Ananth is too modest to take credit for launching the new Stanford Hospital help desk for underserved patients. The campus organization began as "just a group of people who were concerned," said the 25-year-old Ananth. More than 40 students came to the group's first meeting. More »

 
Medical student Prasanna Ananth

Her faith blended with health service, Grudzen forever seeks balance

Marita Grudzen’s art adorns her cozy corner Welch Road office. Sipping a cup of peppermint tea, the staff lecturer in the Department of Family and Community Medicine explains one piece, the circular mandala design she created to represent her life. More »

 
Marita Grudzen

Mission to Chile offers relief to skin cancer victims

During a weeklong trip in April to bring the latest medical techniques to a developing nation, a team of U.S. dermatologic surgeons performed more than a dozen operations to remove skin tumors. Chile has one of the world’s highest rates of skin cancer, the result in part of a hole in the ozone layer above the country. More »

 
Hayes Gladstone, MD

Not your typical medical school sabbatical

The pitch to Hollywood producers would go like this: Handsome, 40-something director of world-class emergency department who not only wields a scalpel but knows how to fire a gun. Meet the cop doc, a physician who’s ready to tackle any trauma as part of a SWAT—Special Weapons and Tactics—team. More »

 
Bob Norris, MD

Trip to Sri Lanka spotlights need for more tsunami relief

The raging waters that killed 40,000 Sri Lankans in December inspired a Stanford pathologist to offer firsthand assistance. In a two-week visit, Yasodha Natkunam, MD, discovered that the nation is sorely lacking in laboratory equipment and expertise. More »

 
Yasodha Natkunam, MD

Treating the tortured

Stanford alum Cynthia Willard, MD, cares for patients who’ve been beaten with bats and whips, raped with foreign objects, suspended by their wrists or ankles, burned with hot cigarettes or irons and shocked with electric probes. With such clientele, you’d expect to hear that Willard, class of 1994, works in Kosovo or Rwanda, but the clinic she started in 2003, the Utah Health and Human Rights Project, is located in Salt Lake City. More »

 
Alum Cynthia Willard, MD

Film shows how clash of cultures affects treatment

A new documentary film by Maren Grainger-Monsen, MD, follows the story of an Afghani immigrant as he struggles with whether to pursue chemotherapy following surgery to remove the cancer from his stomach. It shows in wrenching detail how miscommunication and misunderstanding between people from two very different worlds—medical professionals at Stanford Hospital and Kochi and his Afghani family and friends—lead to decisions that Kochi later appears to regret. More »

 
Maren Grainger-Monsen, MD

Need remains great post-tsunami, medical student reports

Niroshana Anandasabapathy, a 29-year-old MD/PhD student in cancer biology, recently returned from a week of relief work in eastern Sri Lanka, a trip that was made possible in part by support from the School of Medicine. Medical Center Report asked her to write about her experience. More »

 
Medical student Niroshana Anandasabapathy

Medical Students At Work Abroad

The Organization of International Health (OIH), a student-run organization at the School of Medicine, works to raise awareness of international health issues. This summer, Stanford students are contributing to projects in communities around the globe. Whether helping devise new preventive strategies, gaining hands-on clinical experience or conducting field research, these individuals are already distinguishing themselves as advocates for improved health care worldwide. Here is just a sampling of their work. More »

 
Medical student Lisa Wong

Student-Run Farmers' Market Offers Creative Solution to Childhood Obesity

Second-year medical student Annie Chao likes to keep things positive – even when tackling an issue as difficult as childhood obesity. So when she heard about a new farmers’ market project to promote healthful eating, she jumped at the chance to get involved. More »

 
Student-run farmers' market

Working Across Borders

From helping women with birthing complications in Eritrea to treating tuberculosis in Mexico, Stanford faculty members are deeply committed to international health care, providing treatments, training and support to developing countries around the world. Here are just a few of their stories. More »

 
Mark Lake Polan, MD, PhD

Tsunami prompts many at medical center to offer aid

The tsunami that devastated Asia has spurred many at the medical center to lend assistance, with Stanford’s two hospitals sending desperately needed medical supplies and physicians volunteering to offer treatment and guidance. The two hospitals’ involvement was spurred in part by a suggestion from second-year medical school student Prasanna Ananth, who heard about the devastation from her mother who was visiting a temple in south India. More »

 
Yasodha Natkunam, MD

When Koko the gorilla needs a checkup, Stanford docs swing into action

Fred Mihm, MD, doesn't often make house calls, but the anesthesiology professor is willing to make an exception for a celebrity patient. A celebrity gorilla, that is. On Aug. 8, Mihm and a team of Stanford colleagues reported to the nearby Woodside abode of Koko, the 33-year-old lowland gorilla famous for her ability to communicate through American Sign Language. More »

 
Fred Mihm, MD

From tumor board to public affairs, liver surgeon believes in outreach

Faculty liver cancer surgeon Samuel So wants to stop a deadly worldwide epidemic of liver cancer that he's convinced too few people seem to be doing anything about. And he's perfectly willing to devote a lot of time and attention to public education and prevention, especially if success will keep patients out of his operating room. More »

 
Samuel So, MD

In Conversation with Shari Chevez

Medical student Shari Chevez has been involved in community service for many years and saw no reason to stop once she entered medical school. Her extensive involvement in a number of projects reflect a passion for meeting the needs of underserved populations. More »

 
Medical student Shari Chevez

In Conversation with Janet Shalwitz, MD

Janet Shalwitz, MD, is director of the Adolescent Health Working Group, a San Francisco-based collaborative committed to improving adolescents’ access to quality health programs and services. She has been a guest lecturer for a number of medical courses.More »

 
Janet Shalwitz, MD

In Conversation with James Hallenbeck, MD

James Hallenbeck, MD, assistant professor of medicine, is the director of Palliative Care Services at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System where he specializes in pain management and cultural aspects of end-of-life care with a focus on intercultural communication. More »

 
James Hallenbeck, MD

In Conversation with Khaliah Johnson

Combining her interests in African studies, international health and women’s health, third-year medical student Khaliah Johnson has worked to address childbirth complications in Eritrea as well as other health issues impacting women locally and abroad. More »

 
Khaliah Johnson

In Conversation with Douglas Grey, MD

Stanford alum Douglas Grey, MD is a thoracic and vascular surgeon at Kaiser in San Francisco. He co-founded Operation Access, a non-profit organization that provides free outpatient elective surgeries to uninsured individuals. More »

 
Douglas Grey, MD

In Conversation with Susan Anderson, MD

Susan Anderson, MD, is an adjunct clinical assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Disease and Geographic Medicine. She is a Travel Tropical & Wilderness Medicine consultant who has been involved in a variety of educational, research, and clinical programs around the world. More »

 
Susan Anderson, MD

In Conversation with Quetzalsol Lopez

Fourth-year medical student Quetzalsol Lopez founded the premedical organization Premeds of Color, aimed at reducing health disparities by diversifying the healthcare work force. He has also worked with the Pediatric Health Van to increase health insurance enrollment among disadvantaged children in San Mateo County. More »

 
Quetzalsol Lopez

New post to focus on faculty diversity and leadership

As the new senior associate dean for diversity and leadership at the School of Medicine, Hannah Valantine, MBBS, MD, professor of cardiology (medicine), is committed to recruiting more women and underrepresented minorities to postgraduate programs and faculty positions. More »

 

In Conversation with Bertha Chen, MD

Dr. Bertha Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and chief of Gynecology at Packard Children’s Hospital. In addition to working in clinic, performing surgeries and running a research lab, she contributes to several international health projects in Central America and Africa. More »

 

In Conversation with Seth Ammerman, MD

Dr. Seth Ammerman, assistant clinical professor in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Packard Children's Hospital, is also medical director of the Teen HealthVan, an outreach program that serves homeless and uninsured adolescents in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties. More »

 
Seth Ammerman, MD

Making public service a matter of course

When Kristine McCoy began medical school at Stanford five years ago she noticed something odd. Many of her classmates were not only bright and ambitious but had a great deal of interest and experience in public service or community medicine. More »

 
Kristine McCoy

Physician still focused on community after 30 years of grassroots service

At the height of the Chicano civil rights movement, a group of Stanford medical students helped start a free clinic in San Jose's Gardner neighborhood. The clinic served Chicano and Mexican immigrant workers and their families. In its first year, it was housed in a schoolroom at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, home to Fathers Moriarty, Boyle and Isaac, Irish priests who marched alongside Cesar Chavez. More »

 
Fernando Mendoza, MD

Lars Osterberg: "Health care is a human right."

In the mind of Lars Osterberg, every little bit helps when it comes to those with little or no access to quality health care. Since 1994, he has been doing his part at the Arbor Free Clinic, an acute-care center run by Stanford medical students in Menlo Park. Osterberg, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (internal medicine), has served as the director of the clinic for the last five years. More »

 
Lars Osterberg

Samuel LeBaron, advocate of Humanism in Medicine

In 2003, Dr. Samuel LeBaron, M.D., Ph.D., professor of family medicine and director for the Center of Education in Family and Community Medicine, received the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award. The award, sponsored by the AAMC and the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, honors a medical school faculty physician who is a mentor for medical students and a practitioner of patient-centered care. More »

 
Samuel LeBaron

Luther C. Brock, Sr.

Luther C. Brock, Sr., served as Director of Programs for the AIDS Community Research Consortium, one of Northern California’s leading community-based nonprofit organizations dedicated to serving people living with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C (HCV) until August 2003. Mr. Brock oversaw ACRC’s case management, food services, education and outreach, and advocacy programs, including a Spanish and English HIV peer education program. More »

 
Luther Brock

In Conversation with Lisa Chamberlain, MD

Lisa Chamberlain, MD, a pediatrician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, is co-founder and chair of the advocacy committee of the local American Academy of Pediatrics, a group working to improve advocacy and community pediatric training for pediatric residents. Chamberlain works directly with Stanford residents to help them connect with communities and develop advocacy programs to address issues ranging from dental health to teen pregnancy to healthcare access for children. More »

 
Lisa Chamberlain, MD

In Conversation with Leroy Sims, Stanford Medical Student

Medical student Leroy Sims, currently working on a Howard Hughes Research Training Fellowship, has served as the National Minority Affairs Coordinator for the American Medical Student Association. He has also played an active role in the Stanford University Minority Medical Alliance (SUMMA), organizing a conference for minority premedical students, which attracted close to 600 attendees. More »

  Leroy Sims

Suture or Shoot? - Alumna Sheri Fink, MD, opens eyes to wartime’s medical quandaries

At just over 5 feet tall and under 100 pounds, Sheri Fink, MD, PhD, is a surprising candidate for Jeep rides into war-ravaged Iraq. Yet in spring 2003, the Stanford medical school alumna roamed Iraq’s tank-strewn desert, working with a team to assess the population’s medical needs and haul supplies. More »

  Sheri Fink, MD, PhD

In Conversation with Graham Walker

Medical student Graham Walker is currently working with the Ravenswood Family Health Center to develop a more efficient system for accessing the privately organized Patient Assistance Programs offered by most drug companies. Walker's work is serving to reduce clinic costs and keep patients on their medication regimens. More »

 
Graham Walker

In Conversation with Nicole Marsico

Medical student Nicole Marisco has long been interested in the idea of training community members in health promotion as a way of reaching under-served populations and fostering community leaders. When she came to Stanford, she learned about Sor Juana Ines (SJI), a local organization looking to pursue a promotore program, and knew she had to get involved. More »

 

Stanford Medicine Resources:

Footer Links: