UCSF Fresno doc receives volunteerism award
 |
| Dr. Dominic Dizon, a UCSF Fresno faculty member, received the volunteerism and community service award from the American College of Physicians, California Northern Region. |
“It is an honor to be recognized for my service to the community,” Dr. Dizon said. “I find public service personally rewarding. It contributes to the community where I live and work, and I believe it makes me a better physician by enabling me to interact with patients outside of the hospital setting.”
Dr. Michael Peterson, UCSF Fresno’s chair of internal medicine, nominated Dr. Dizon for the prestigious award.
“I nominated Dr. Dizon because of a unique service project he conceived about four years ago,” Dr. Peterson said. “The idea involved engaging medical residents in the community by having them volunteer at various local non-profit organizations such as the Poverello House and the Holy Cross Clinic.”
The goal was to give medical residents an opportunity to contribute to the community where many of them are likely to stay and practice after they complete their training and to develop a model for future volunteerism in their profession, Dr. Peterson added.
Between 30% and 40% of the physicians trained at UCSF Fresno, which is located on the 58-acre Community Regional Medical Center campus in downtown Fresno, stay to practice medicine in the Valley when their studies are done.
Dr. Dizon was so passionate about the cause that he and his wife, Nhuha, took the informal internal medicine project and made it available to all UCSF Fresno medical residents. They also established and personally funded the Dizon Community Service Award. There are about five community service projects conducted each year based on requests from various non-profit organizations.
Dr. Dizon joined UCSF Fresno as clinical director in internal medicine in 2002. Six months later, he was named medical director of ambulatory care for Community Regional, where UCSF Fresno residents, fellows and faculty treat patients. Currently, he oversees 14 primary and specialty care clinics at UCSF Fresno and throughout Fresno County, with a total of 180,000 outpatient visits per year.
This story was reported by MedWatch Today staff. The staff can be reached at MedWatchToday@communitymedical.org.