Johns Hopkins Medicine.- Centro SOL co-directors Dr. Sarah Polk, and Dr. Kathleen Page receive the Innovations in Clinical Care Award which honors the physicians and care teams who embody the best in clinical excellence through collaboration and innovation. This recognizes the team efforts made to improve health care access for Latinos. The accomplishments happen in collaboration with individuals and organizations committed to serve the most vulnerable, in partnership with our neighbors.
Dr. Sarah Polk MD, ScM, MHS, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: serves as a bilingual (English/Spanish) primary care pediatrician and Medical Director of the Children’s Medical Practice. She is as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins’ School of Medicine. Her overall research interest is optimizing primary care as a means of addressing racial/ethnic health disparities with a particular focus on early childhood obesity prevention and mental health care. Her work as a clinician has familiarized her with the challenges of providing high quality health care to Latino children of immigrants with Limited English Proficiency who comprise the majority of the patient population at the Children’s Medical Practice. This has led to hear involvement in a number of collaborative efforts to address healthcare quality concerns. For example, the Bayview Children’s Medical Practice Latino Family Advisory Board has sustained participation among immigrant, Latina mothers and provided ongoing, applicable feedback to the practice. She previously co-chaired the Hopkins Organization of Latino Awareness the aim of which is to galvanize faculty support around healthcare quality and access improvements for Latino patients. Finally, she and colleagues recently established Centro SOL the mission of which is to optimize the health of Latinos over their life course through leadership in clinical care, scholarship, education, and advocacy. Furthermore the Center’s vision is linguistically and culturally competent healthcare for Latinos that acknowledges the diversity of the Latino community and respects the dignity of each individual. Dr. Polk received her medical degree at Johns Hopkins and additional training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Kathleen Page, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Disease, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Her work focuses on improving access and quality of care to the emerging Latino community in Baltimore. Her practice in the Moore Clinic and at the Baltimore City Health Department serves Latin American immigrants with HIV. She has established the Latino HIV Outreach Program at the Baltimore City Health Department which collaborates with various local community based organizations to improve timely HIV diagnosis and access to care for Latinos. She is the co-director of Centro SOL which is developing novel strategies to meet the health needs of Latino migrants through research, community advocacy, education, and clinical care. She is the Baltimore City Health Department’s Director of STD/HIV/TB Clinical Services
More information about the awards at: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/clinical-awards/innovations-in-clinical-care.html
