Community Medicine & Vulnerable Populations Fellowship San Jose | Kaiser Permanente Undergraduate & Graduate Medical Education Northern California

2021-2022 Fellow – Alumni

Lucia Martinez, MD

Overview

The Kaiser Permanente Community Medicine and Vulnerable Populations Fellowship (KP-CMF) is based in San Jose. The fellowship is designed to train family physicians to:

Serve diverse and underserved populations,
Work with the most vulnerable members in our community
Become leaders in addressing social determinants of health
Reduce health disparities in our communities
Gain experience in teaching family medicine residents in community medicine

Clinical Opportunities

Fellows will work out of three locations— a Federally Qualified Health Center through School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County, Asian Americans for Community Involvement, and Gardner Family Health Network Services. All sites are in multicultural urban areas in downtown and East San Jose that predominantly serve Latino, refugee, and homeless populations. By working with these sites, fellows will integrate into the community and connect with established community programs to collaborate and address health disparities in San Jose.

Highlights and Objectives

Fellows will:

Teach urban healthcare to KP San Jose Family Medicine Residency (KPSJFMR) residents and medical students through didactics and precepting in our community clinics
Develop a community project that may involve one of our clinical sites, with the option to do clinical research within KP
Work with KP faculty and community site directors to further develop the Community Medicine residency curriculum
Provide direct support to three (3) local FQHCs and other community partners to meet the shared goals of reducing health disparities
Lead our local KP summer high school program targeting students from East San Jose to increase underrepresented minorities in healthcare and collaborate with surrounding pre-medical programs including Mentorship in Medicine and Science (MIMS) and the Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program (SSCCPP)
Work to reduce the impact of Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) by being an active participant in monthly ACES committee meetings and support culturally mindful, integrated approaches to community health, as well as participate with the Stop Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) team for Santa Clara County
Work on expanding access to care to transgender and nonbinary patients, with the opportunity to become Wpath certified
Enhance medical Spanish and other languages through work at local clinics and KP-sponsored global rotations
Possibility of international travel for global health rotation (subject to travel policies/restrictions related to the ongoing pandemic)
Provide care to diverse patients, including the LGBTQ community and patients dealing with substance abuse and homelessness
Support local and regional pathway programs and promote healthcare careers among minority students

Didactics

Fellows will have protected time for didactic learning in Community Medicine, including time to meet with the other KP Community Health fellows in the region.
Fellows will teach medical students and KPSJFMR residents in the Family Medicine clinic and take on a teaching role in our community clinic sites.

Community Advocacy and Community Project

Fellows will complete a scholarly project in Community Health with support from our Research Director and Research Project Manager. Topics may consist of mentored research projects through KP’s Division of Research, quality improvement project implementation at our community clinic partner sites, enhancement of pathway programs, medical education projects or health policy projects.
Fellows will have scheduled protected time to develop their projects and meet and collaborate with mentors, researchers and other regional KP Community Health Fellows.
Fellows will take an active role in a variety of community initiatives, ranging from participation in local health fairs, to legislative advocacy work with community partners, to assistance with KP efforts to reduce healthcare disparities, and to development and recruitment of diverse students and physicians.