A letter from the chiefs: Who we are & what we do
Warm greetings from sunny San Diego!
Thank you for taking the time to visit the Family Health Centers of San Diego (FHCSD) Family Medicine Program website. We are thrilled to share what drew us here and why our enthusiasm for this program holds strong. We’d first like to share a brief history and mission of the organization we work with, deeply rooted in anti-racism, social justice and health equity.
FHCSD was founded in 1970 through the advocacy of dedicated local Latina leader, Laura Rodriguez. Laura, and a group of community activists, sought to bring much-needed medical services to Barrio Logan –– an underserved, predominantly Mexican-American community in the heart of San Diego. A more in-depth story can be found on our main website at www.fhcsd.org.
Today, FHCSD has grown into one of the 10 largest federally qualified health centers in the country, serving more than 227,000 patients each year, and ranks in the top 20% of community clinic organizations nationwide.
The family medicine residency program was envisioned to fall in step with the FHCSD mission statement…
FHCSD is dedicated to providing caring, affordable, high-quality health care and supportive services to everyone, with a special commitment to uninsured, low-income and medically underserved persons.
…under its own mission to:
Recruit and train physicians from diverse backgrounds who are interested in providing care to the underserved communities of San Diego, while providing high-quality, broad-based clinical education and experience.
Our residents primarily work at City Heights Family Health Center, an accredited patient-centered medical home that serves one of the most diverse and underserved communities in San Diego. The income of 90% of our patients is below or near the federal poverty level. Our patients and their families come from all over the world — nearly half (42.4%) of people currently living in City Heights were born outside of the United States. It often feels like practicing global medicine without leaving the country as we are taking care of migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, regardless of their documentation status. In recent years, some of the most represented groups in City Heights include Latinx, Haitian, Somali, Ethiopian, Congolese, Vietnamese, Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan, Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian individuals and families, with over 41 languages spoken in our clinic!
Additionally, our inpatient rotations are at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, which functions as a safety net for the city, including many people experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders. This experience affords further expertise in caring for the underserved in a variety of settings.
Among the program’s curricular strengths, the HIV track stands out as a unique opportunity for residents. All residents learn HIV primary care and rotate through The Night Clinic, where they care for LGBTQ communities, including providing primary care for transgender patients. Each year, two or more residents are selected to become board-certified HIV specialists and gain proficiency in treating viral hepatitis.
Other tracks and areas of concentration include global health, sports medicine, addiction medicine, integrative medicine, reproductive health and concentrated pregnancy care. The program is young, dynamic and constantly evolving. Past residents have developed these tracks to align their training with career goals.
Residents and faculty regularly collaborate to improve the program, and resident ideas often translate quickly into change. For example, in 2020, with the leadership of a former chief resident who is now a faculty member, the program integrated medications for addiction treatment (MAT) training for substance use disorders into the routine curriculum and opened a MAT clinic at the City Heights location. More recently, in 2025, a program graduate created the addiction medicine track as part of his scholarly project, offering a robust clinical and educational experience for residents interested in the field.
Lastly, the close-knit feel of the residency community is palpable even to prospective residents during interviews and social gatherings, and it is truly one of the aspects of this program that sets it apart. We enjoy a healthy work-life balance, with San Diego providing endless opportunities for hiking, beaches, water sports, museums, restaurants, breweries and more. The list goes on! We are both so proud to be a part of the FHCSD FMRP family, surrounded by inspiring residents and faculty who are leaders in our community. We could not be more excited to share our love for this program with you.
Sincerely,
Dimitri Gonzales, MD, MPH & Emilie Doan Van, DO, MPH
Chief Residents, Class of 2026
Program Goals
- To develop outstanding physicians who are prepared to provide comprehensive and continuous primary medical care in a variety of settings
- To foster effective interpersonal and communication skills with patients, their families and health professionals
- To develop physicians who understand and put into practice up-to-date medical knowledge
- To foster professionalism
- To foster self-learning and self-improvement
- To achieve certification by the American Board of Family Medicine
- To develop leaders who will work within their communities to improve patient care
- To create a new generation of highly qualified community medicine physicians dedicated to the care of everyone, with a special commitment to uninsured, low-income and medically underserved persons
