Research Interests:
Alicia Fernandez, MD is Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF based at San Francisco General Hospital where she has been a hospitalist and director of inpatient services and where she is currently a primary care physician. Her research centers on improving the care of chronic disease for low income patients.  To date, this has led to two strands of research; one focused on "high users" of inpatient services and the other on language and cultural barriers to care for LEP patients.  Her research is supported through an NIH K23 Career Development Award. Her teaching interests are in quality improvement and health disparities. Dr Fernandez received a mayoral achievement award from the City of San Francisco for innovative care of immigrant and poor patients, and has received numerous teaching awards including the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2000 and the Society of General Internal Medicine Clinician-Educator of the Year Award, CA region, 2002.  She is a member of the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators.

Top 10 Publications Relevant to MERC

• Mejia R, Aleman M, Fernandez A, Perez Stable E.  Conocimientos y Deteccion de Violencia Domestica Por los Medicos Clinicos. (Awareness and detection of domestic violence by clinical physicians) Medicina 2000; 60, 591-594
  
• Schillinger D, Fernandez A, Wheeler M. The populations and quality improvement seminar. For medical residents. Academic Medicine, 2000 May, 75(5):562-563
  
• Fernandez  A, Grumbach  K, Gotein L, Vranizan K, Osmond DH, Bindman AB.  Friend or Foe: How Primary Care Physicians Perceive Hospitalists.   Archives of Internal Medicine. 2000;160:2902-2908
  
• Fernandez  A, Grumbach  K, Vranizan  K, Osmond DH, Bindman AB.  Primary Care Physicians‚ Experience with Disease Management Programs.   Journal of General Internal Medicine.  2001;16 (3): 163-167  This article was cited as among the 20 best recent articles of JGIM in Bass E.  Best of JGIM 2003.  Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2003; 18 1062-1065
  
• Pignone M, Phillips CJ, Elasy T, Fernandez A. Physicians' ability to predict the risk of coronary heart disease.  BMC Health Services Research 2003, 3:13
  
• Fernandez A, Kushel M, Muhta S, Schillinger D.  Populations and Quality Improvement:  Improving Care and Creating Agents for Change.  2003. Curriculum published as PDF file. Center for Health Professions Web Site:  http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/cnetwork/resources/curricula/
  intro.html>http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/cnetwork/
  resources/curricula/intro.html
  
• Majdalani M, Mejia R, Fayanas R, Fernandez A, Perez-Stable EJ.  Residentes de primer ano de Medicina Interna:  distribucion horaria de las tareas.  Educacion Medica.2003, Vol XIII, (49), 15-19
  
• Fernandez A, Schillinger D, Grumbach K, Rosenthal A, Stewart A, Wang F, Perez-Stable EJ.  Physician language ability and cultural competence: An exploratory study of communication with Spanish ˆspeaking patients.  Journal of General Internal Medicine. 19 (2), 167-174
  
• Pletcher M, Fernandez A, Todd M,  Westphal JR, Gamez C, Hersh DF, Gonzales R:  Unintended consequences of a quality improvement program designed to improve treatment of alcohol withdrawal in hospitalized patients. Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety. In press
  
• Wilson E, Chen AH, Grumbach K, Wang F, Fernandez A (corresponding). The Effects of English Proficiency and Physician Language on Health Care Comprehension.  Under review