Congratulations to Dr. Erika Flores Uribe for winning one of the first annual Right Fit HIPster Awards.

Dr. Flores Uribe received her medical degree from the University of San Francisco School of Medicine and her masters in public health from Harvard School of Public Health.  She is a current third year resident at Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center.  She is being recognized for developing an evidence-based language services program to decrease health disparities and improve medical outcomes.

Dr. Flores Uribe saw how cultural, linguistic and economic barriers prevented members of her own family from attaining  comprehensive healthcare.  As she watched medical providers care for patients, unable to communicate in a language the patient or families could understand, she became inspired to find ways to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care. This became the focus of her research, health policy, community engagement and advocacy projects.

Currently, Dr. Flores Uribe is developing an evidence-based language service for her hospital.  Her project addresses the issues of language congruency, appropriateness of translation/language services to improve patient engagement in healthcare. The implementation of her project will create a language services model that will more effectively provide care to her patients and leave a lasting direct impact on the health of her community.

Dr. Flores Uribe has shown a commitment to understand and improve the health of vulnerable populations, particularly the urban, non-English speaking poor.

You can see her interview on the Medelita here!

Congratulations to Dr. Flores Uribe, an amazing FemInEM!