RESUMé
About Me
I am a Medical Director at IDEO. I work closely with design teams to bring impactful and innovative ideas to life. I provide clinical and design expertise for IDEO Health on 5-8 projects/year spanning from innovative products (digital and hardware), services, experiences to systems design. I focus on upskilling of IDEO Health’s expertise through lectures, workshops and development of our Health Insights Lab to deepen core competencies and develop new knowledge across IDEO. I also play the role of design researcher/ design research guide, and conduct design research (including recruitment, plan, interviews/focus groups) and synthesize insights of user needs in various health sectors. Furthermore, I support business development teams/ client relationships, and manage several designers, physicians-in-residence and health interns.
Most recently, I have been leaning into IDEO Health’s initiative to bring health equity to the forefront of our work. Starting with the executive leadership to develop IDEO Health’s credo, strategic vision and roadmap, I am spearheading our efforts to raise our competency and capabilities across different levels of our organization. Designing tools to foster dialogue about how health equity integrates in our projects, surfacing opportunities to have a shared dialogue with our clients, and building a framework for accountability, I am focused on transforming how our organization intersects health equity with design.
I was also a Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow. I learned to apply design-thinking principles to identify unmet healthcare needs, and integrate value-driven innovations and cost-effective decision-making into impactful solutions for patients and the healthcare ecosystem.
I live in Palo Alto, CA and am also an emergency medicine resident physician at UCSF-ZSFG Emergency Medicine Department and a physician at Kaiser Redwood City. I have provided clinical care at 5 different emergency room and acute care settings, overseeing 10,000+ adult and pediatric patients. Extensive training in resuscitation, trauma, critical care, acute and chronic care management, and procedures.
In my spare time, I love hiking, tennis, and swimming. I love group vacations and cooperative board games. I always dream about new travels to places that require at least a stopover, and where can I find my next foodie fix.
CliniCal Experience & Education
Clinical Experience
Physician, UCSF-ZSDFGH, March 2020-present
Physician, Kaiser Redwood City, May 2018-present
Physician, UCSF-ZSFGH Emergency Medicine Residency, (Moffitt, Mission Bay- Children’s, ZSFGH, June 2014- Sept 2019
Physician, Direct Urgent Care, Dec 2016-June 2017
Education
Biodesign Innovation Post-doctoral Fellow, Stanford University, August 2018-present
MD, UCSF Medical School and UCSF/ZSFGH Emergency Medicine Residency , June 2008-May 2014; June 2014-present
MS in Health Sciences, UC Berkeley, Joint Medical Program, June 2008-May 2011
BA in Human Biology, Brown University, August 2001-Dec. 2005
MEDICAL INNOVATION & HEALTH SYSTEMS DESIGN
IDEO, Medical Director, San Francisco, April 2019-present
Provide medical and health design expertise to IDEO across many projects in health product, services, systems and strategy.
Stanford University Biodesign Innovation Fellowship: 2018-19 Fellow, Stanford University, August 2018-present
Accepted, through a highly competitive process, to an immersive multidisciplinary program in medical innovation. Identified, using a rigorous design-thinking process, over 250 unmet healthcare needs and created physical and digital prototypes for needs with the largest impact using a holistic due diligence framework. Developed business, regulatory, and reimbursement strategies for value-based, market-potential solutions for top 3 needs .
ZSFGH The Waiting Room Project, Project Lead , UCSF, March 2017-present
Initiated idea for an interactive patient-driven tablet-based platform to improve healthcare system literacy. Conducted user testing built first set of prototypes and raised grant funding for $60,000.
ZSFGH ED Care Coordination Task Force, Chief , UCSF, Dec. 2015-June 2018
Led a 15-person task force to improve ZSFGH ED care coordination for patients and providers. Managed 6 projects related to transitions of care focused on discharge instructions, primary and subspecialty care, pharmacy and social services.
Design and Innovation Lead, Acute Care Innovation Center, UCSF, March 2017-June 2018
Collaborated on the team to develop the center’s concept
AgileMD, Medical Design Lead, San Francisco, Sept. 2012- June 2014
Collaborated with 5 software engineers to develop a digital clinical guideline tool for clinicians at UCSF and other hospitals. Conducted user research which drove the content and design of iOS and Android mobile apps.
TEACHING, Community & Research EXPERIENCE
ALiEM, PEM Pearls Editor-in-Chief, San Francisco, June 2013- June 2018
Founded PEM Pearls as part of ALiEM, a top emergency medicine blog in the country with an audience of over 10,000 clinicians. Responsible for the section, recruitment of writers, curation of content,. personally contributed 7 video/animation posts.
Curriculum Lead, Health Policy Curriculum for Resident Education, UCSF, Sept. 2014-June 2018
Initiated, designed and integrated a health policy curriculum into resident education
Bay Area Schweitzer Fellow, Teen Health Leadership Program, Asian Health Services, Oakland, Sept. 2009- Dec. 2010
Design and implementation of health and leadership workshops for at-risk Asian female students at Oakland High School.
HIV Counselor and Research Assistant, Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, July J006- July 2007
Responsible for HIV testing and education; Implemented English/Spanish multimedia counseling kiosk project to increase accessibility to testing and education in high-volume ER.
Selected Publications
Co-author, A National Study of the Association Between Income and Ambulance Response Time in Cardiac Arrest, JAMA, November 2018
PMID: 30646394
Co-author, Health System Science, Media Review, AMA Education Consortium, Acad Emerg Med, September, 2017, Paperback ISBN: 9780323461160
Co-author, Walk-ins Welcome: Why Patients Prefer the Emergency Department for Unexpected Problems , Abstract at SAEM, December 2016
Co-author, Frequent Users to the ED: How Often do they go to another hospital?, Abstracts at SAEM and Western SAEM, Feb and April 2016
Co-author, The HIPAA Conundrum in the Era of Mobile Health and Communications, JAMA, September 2013 PMID: 23978879
Co-author, Oral and airway microbiota in HIV-infected pneumonia patients, American Society for Microbiology, July 2012, PMID: 22760045
Co-author, Phase 1 study of concurrent sunitinib and image-guided radiotherapy followed by maintenance sunitinib for patients with oligometastases: acute toxicity and preliminary response. Cancer, June 2009, PMID: 19536893