he Center for Vulnerable Populations (CVP) at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) conducts and disseminates innovative research to prevent and treat chronic diseases in people most at risk. Many chronic diseases can be prevented or controlled once they develop. By understanding the multiple vulnerabilities that patients struggle with, low-cost interventions can significantly improve the health of vulnerable populations, avoid costly complications of chronic disease, and build a stronger community.
The SFGH is best known for its pioneering work on HIV/AIDS, its Level One Trauma Center, and its outstanding alumni who have served as leaders in American medicine and public health. In addition to its high quality patient care at the hospital, its affiliated clinics provide medical care to more than 100,000 people annually, most of whom are the working poor.
These patients often struggle with multiple challenges to health, including poverty, low literacy, speaking little or no English, living in unsafe neighborhoods, or being ethnic minorities. These vulnerabilities often overlap and conspire in ways that make patients more likely to develop chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, coronary heart disease and depression. These diseases are quiet killers, causing early disability and death in devastatingly high number of poor and minority patients. Furthermore, they are less likely to get the medical help they need. Poverty and lack of health insurance often limit patients' access to medical care AND limited literacy and English proficiency can make it more difficult to receive effective care.
SFGH is one of the premier public hospitals in the country, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) consistently ranks as a top medical school. All doctors at SFGH are members of the UCSF faculty. In partnership, these two institutions provide outstanding patient care and produce ground-breaking research that has changed the face of medicine worldwide. The goal of the Center for Vulnerable Populations can develop solutions to prevent and treat chronic diseases, develop local, regional and national networks to share information, and advocate for social policies to improve public health. The Center will develop and share tools in multiple languages to improve communication between doctors, patients, communities and health systems, ensuring that medical discoveries reach their ultimate destination—the patient.
