"For My Family & Loved Ones"
A Personal Account of Healthcare Disparities
By Christine Santiago, MD
Correcting disparities is not just my passion but an interest based on my lived experience. Growing up in NYC in a low-income immigrant family, I was well versed in disparities. My mother emigrated from the Dominican Republic and my father was born shortly after his family moved from Puerto Rico. My parents both struggled making ends meet and after their divorce, my father, who had only a high school equivalency diploma, had difficulty finding work while primarily raising me and my sister.
Despite various medical ailments, my parents often avoided getting the help they needed because of their inability to pay for care. I distinctly remember a time in medical school when my mother called me disoriented with slurred speech. Although I tried to convince her to go to the hospital, the one thing she repeated over again and again was "I can't go to the hospital, I don't have insurance." The sense of helplessness and frustration I've felt during that moment and countless others has been my motivation and driving force to help rectify healthcare inequities.
My background has been the source of my motivation for attending Harvard medical school and getting an MPH at UC Berkeley in health policy and management. During my time as a Stanford resident, I co-founded a residency enrichment program for residents who had a similar passion in caring for underserved patients and promoting health equity.
This program, the Stanford Internal Medicine Program for Health Equity, Advocacy and Research (Stanford IM HEARs), provides unique training and tools for residents to help address healthcare disparities through exposure to clinical rotations focused on working with underserved populations locally, mentorship, scholarship/ research and leadership training. The mission of the program is to address the large need for leaders that will champion initiatives and advocate for the health of underserved populations within the United States.
Although there is a long way to go to fully eliminate healthcare disparities, I'm truly grateful to the Stanford Internal Medicine department, the current Stanford HEARs faculty leadership (Dr. Wendy Caceres, Dr. Andrea Jonas and Dr. Cybele Renault), and current resident leadership (Dr. Nancy Liu, Dr. Emily Woods and Dr. Natasha Steele) for supporting my dreams and joining me in trying to make sustainable change in the lives of not only our patients but my family and loved ones as well.
About Christine Santiago, MD
Christine Santiago graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Human Biology, prior to enrolling in medical school at Harvard. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 2019, and earned an M.P.H. form UC Berkeley in 2018. During this time she developed a particular focus and interest in diversity and underserved communities, serving as Co-Chair of the HMS Women of Color in Medicine and Dentistry organization, being recognized as a Kaiser Permanente Public Health Fellow, and being awarded both the McKinsey APD Diversity Impact Award and the Harvard Presidential Scholars Public Service Initiative Award.
At Stanford she further developed these interests, showing true talent in program development as a founder and leader of a new residency program curriculum called Stanford HEARs (Stanford Health Equity, Advocacy and Research), and as an active member of the Women & Medicine Mentorship Program. After her Chief Resident year in 2022-23, Christine plans a career in either Cardiology or Hospital Medicine.
