About IDHEAL

IDHEAL stands for “International and Domestic Health Equity and Leadership” and is a section of the All-UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine formed in 2016. The mission of the section is to define and promote the role that academic emergency medicine can play in the promotion of health equity and the elimination of health disparities, locally, nationally and globally. To do so, we address the social, economic, environmental, and legal determinants of health by partnering with nontraditional allies, such as community-based organizations, to understand and treat patients in the context of their communities and their lives. 

Learn more about IDHEAL

Institutions

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is a public safety net hospital serving the two million residents living in the San Fernando Valley, located at the northern section of Los Angeles County. OV-UCLA is a major teaching affiliate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with medical students, residents, and fellows spending a significant portion of their training at OV-UCLA. Residents of the UCLA Emergency Medicine residency program spend 50% of their training at OV-UCLA. The hospital has 377 beds, while the 25,000 square foot Emergency Department, which was built in 2011, has 51 beds. The ED census is roughly 60,000 patients per year. The majority of patients are working poor, immigrants, and/or primarily Spanish-speaking.

A street view of the Olive View Hospital

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is crucial safety net hospital serving more than 700,000 residents in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Our high-volume, high-acuity Emergency Department sees approximately 90,000 annual patient visits from a largely underserved population. It is the only Level 1 Trauma Center, Pediatric Trauma Center, Pediatric Critical Medical Center, Disaster Resource Center, Stroke Center, Academic STEMI Receiving Center, and Nursing and Paramedic Training Center in the South Bay of Los Angeles. In addition to its essential role in patient care, Harbor-UCLA is a key teaching hospital for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and has a decades-long history of advancing medical science and care delivery.

Street view of the Harbor Hospital

The fellowship program is co-directed by Kabir Yadav, MDCM, MS, MSHS, FACEP at Harbor-UCLA and Breena Taira, MD, MPH, CPH, FACEP at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Please see a complete list of IDHEAL faculty.

Please see IDHEAL website for current application cycle information.

Current Fellows

Hurnan Vongsachang, MD, 2023-2025

Fellowship Alumni

Rose Diaz, MD, 2021-2023
Jesus Torres, MD, 2020-2022
Hannah Janeway, MD, 2019-2021
Hemang Acharya, MD, 2018-2020