FRESNO - Dominic Dizon, MD, a faculty member with the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, recently 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,” said Dizon. “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.”
Dizon was nominated for the prestigious award by Michael Peterson, MD, UCSF Fresno’s chair of internal medicine.
“I nominated Dr. Dizon because of a unique service project he conceived about four years ago,” said Peterson. “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, Peterson added.
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 the Dizon Community Service Award, personally funded by Dr. and Mrs. Dizon. Currently there are about five community service projects conducted each year based on requests from various nonprofit organizations.
Dizon received his undergraduate and medical school degrees from University of California, Davis. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland. Dizon joined UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program as clinical director in internal medicine in 2002. Six months later, he was named medical director of ambulatory care for Community Regional Medical Center 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.
