Gordon Fung, MD, PhD Wins 2014 CMA Foundation Access to Health Care and Disparities Award December 8, 2014 SFMS Member Access to Health Care and Disparities Award, Adarsh S. Mahal, cardiologist, Gordon Fung 0 UCSF Cardiologist Recognized for Commitment to Improving Health Care Access for San Francisco’s Asian Community Gordon Fung, MD, PhD, a cardiologist and current Editor of San Francisco Medicine, was selected as the recipient of the 2014 Adarsh S. Mahal, MD Access to Health Care and Disparities Award from the California Medical Association Foundation. Dr. Fung was recognized for his role in establishing the first Asian heart and vascular center in the nation and his ongoing commitment to improve health care access for the Asian community. The Mahal Award acknowledges “an individual or organization that has demonstrated extraordinary interest and efforts toward improving access to health care or reducing health care disparities in California.” Dr. Fung has dedicated more than 25 years of his cardiology career to addressing disparities in health care. He co-founded the Asian Heart and Vascular Center (AHVC) at the University of California – San Francisco in 2006, after noting Asian patients often do not seek care or delay care for heart attacks and strokes—the two leading causes of death for Asian Americans—due to language barrier and cultural differences. AHVC was the first center in the county to serve the specific cardiovascular care needs of Asian Pacific Islanders. Under his guidance, the center developed prevention and treatment programs that cater to Asians culturally, linguistically, and medically. It enabled Asian patients to learn in their own language and culture about disease processes, treatment options, and symptom recognition of cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, the center was seen as the leading institution to coordinate clinical research efforts and support program activities with community partners to decrease health disparities in the Asian community. Recognizing the importance of community education, Dr. Fung spearheaded AHVC’s educational outreach efforts to the public with monthly outreach community meetings and seminars. He also volunteered with the American Heart Association as well as the Chinese Community Health Care Association to engage San Francisco’s Chinese community in heart disease prevention and treatment. Awareness about heart disease risk factors and prevention tips significantly increased from 10% to 80% in the Chinese community in a five year span as a direct result of Dr. Fung’s community talks and AHVC seminars. In addition to an active clinical practice in consultative general clinical cardiology, Dr. Fung serves as a clinical professor at the UCSF School of Medicine, and represents the San Francisco Medical Society on the Healthy San Francisco Advisory Oversight Committee, a program to provide universal health care access for all San Franciscans. He is a founding board member of the National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians, and Asian American Research Center on Health, a leading organization in Asian American health research to promote health and health equity. Dr. Fung was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom as a member of the Healthy San Francisco Advisory Oversight Committee to represent the San Francisco Medical Society and physicians in implementing Healthy San Francisco, a program designed to provide universal health care access for citizens of San Francisco. He was also appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chairman of the Council of Multicultural Health, which was designed to develop programs and monitor statewide health activities to decrease ethnic disparities. Comments are closed.
