Valy Fontil, MD, MAS is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine-SFGH and the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations. Dr. Fontil is committed to using multiple research methodologies to study proactive clinical approaches for disease prevention and cardiovascular risk reduction in disenfranchised populations vulnerable to health disparities. As a health services researcher and implementation scientist, his current work is focused on identifying, studying, and implementing hypertension management interventions to improve population health and reduce health disparities. Some of his most recent research work has included: (1) analysis of national datasets to identify gaps and disparities in current management of hypertension; (2) development and use of microsimulation modeling to predict what clinical interventions might work best for improving hypertension control; and (3) implementation of a practice-based hypertension in safety-net clinics. He was recently awarded a UCSF institutional grant to help fund his efforts in adopting and implementing Kaiser Permanente’s hypertension control program in the San Francisco General Hospital’s General Medicine Clinic – Bring it Down GMC. Dr. Fontil also has in interest in leveraging mobile health information technology for practice-based interventions in healthcare safety-net institutions.

Dr. Fontil studied at Oakwood College, a historically Black College, and then went on to medical school at the University of Michigan, where he received his MD and MPH. He then joined the UCSF family to do his General Internal Medicine Research Fellowship, where he earned a Master of Advanced Studies in Clinical Research with a specialization in implementation science. He has worked with Drs. Bibbins-Domingo and Mark Pletcher to develop the Blood Pressure Control Model, a computer microsimulation model that simulates the healthcare processes involved in controlling blood pressure. As a UCSF postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Fontil developed a hypertension treatment algorithm that is now being implemented in several clinics across the San Francisco Health Network.

I addition to his research, Dr. Fontil serves on the selection committee for the Pre-Health Undergraduate Program at the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and a lecturer in the program’s Designing Clinical Research curriculum. He is also an affiliated mentor and presenter in the UCSF-RISE program – a recently funded NHLBI R25 grant for a summer institute to attract under-represented minority faculty from other institutions to UCSF for an implementation science curriculum and mentoring.