Francisco Saavedra, M.D.

Dr. Francisco Saavedra is a board-certified family physician from Mexico and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM). His education includes training in medical literature analysis and retrieval systems, telemedicine, electronic medical records and open artificial intelligence systems in clinical practice at the City University London, the University of Wales in the United Kingdom, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He started working in the field of medical informatics as Director of Data Retrieval Services in the Scientific Medical Information Unit of the School of Medicine at the University of Nuevo Leon (UANL) in Monterrey, Mexico. The unit provided evidence-based medical literature to support basic and clinical research, preventive medicine, curricular development and patient informatics consulting services (PICS)-a patient-centered clinical decision making consulting service.

As a physician, Dr. Saavedra completed his residency in Family Medicine at the Mexican National Institute of Health where he was chief resident, and also completed a fellowship in Hospital Medicine at the University Hospital of the UANL. He began his career as a family physician in the Hospital Aranda de la Parra in León, Mexico, one of the country's leading private hospitals, where he was also the Director and Founder of the Medical Information Center. Later he became Director of the grant-funded Primary Care, Preventive Medicine and Automation Project (Electronic Medical Records and Clinical Expert Systems) of the University Regional Health Network, Program UNI (Una Nueva Iniciativa), sponsored by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, at the School of Medicine of the UANL.

As a bilingual physician speaking Spanish and English fluently, and also understanding Italian, French, Portuguese, and Catalan, Dr. Saavedra worked as a Primary Care Associate at the Clark Medical Group in Houston, Texas for three years. This hands-on clinical work was performed at a family medicine clinic located in an underserved area of Houston. Dr. Saavedra conducted interviews, gave physical exams and performed in-office basic laboratory work; provided assessment of clinical data and laboratory and image studies; created plans for diagnoses, treatment, patient education, follow-up, and referrals-including physical therapy; performed in-office minor surgery, medical drug screening tests, completed worker's compensation histories, and employee physicals; completed patient chart documentation; and provided medications available at the clinic.

While working in Houston, he also served as the Jail Medical Specialist for the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Saavedra provided the same clinical duties as mentioned previously, and also responded to emergency and non-emergency medical calls.

In 2001, Dr. Saavedra moved to Idaho where he developed programs for the University of Idaho's Student Health Services (SHS) that encompass disease prevention, health promotion, safety, and the integration of new technologies. He implemented programs in electronic medical records, clinical decision support and information retrieval systems, three of the important technologies developed to improve the clinical services and health outcomes for patients. In addition, he held the positions of Clinical Care Coordinator of SHS, Technical Advisor and Grant Writer for the Health and Wellness Services.
In January of 2004, Dr. Saavedra joined the WWAMI Medical Education Program-a collaborative program among the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM), Washington State University (WSU) and the University of Idaho (UI)-as the Multicultural Programs Coordinator. This office was created to provide support for students from underrepresented and/or disadvantaged backgrounds working to earn M.D. or M.D. /Ph.D. degrees, and also to teach cross-cultural subjects to all students. In addition, Dr. Saavedra assists students with application and admission procedures to medical school; serves as a mentor in both academic and non-academic arenas; facilitates access to the multitude of resources within the region, university and community; and develops academic, informational, international and cultural programs for medical students throughout the year.

Dr. Saavedra also holds a faculty appointment at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) as Clinical Assistant Professor, through the Department of Family Medicine, teaching Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM I: Med Sci 513, 522, and 535) at WSU/UI WWAMI, and he is the Course Chair for Spanish for Health Professionals-SHP (Family Medicine-FAMED 556), devoted to the study of medical Spanish and the cultural issues related to successful interactions with Spanish-speaking patients in clinical encounters.
In addition, he is the coordinator of the U-DOC Program, intended to foster, affirm and encourage high school students' interest in medicine and health care. This program allows them to experience a pre-college health curriculum, and explore career options within a structured college environment. Lastly, Dr. Saavedra is responsible for the recently-created International Health Opportunities Program in Mexico (IHOP-México)-an accredited program in affiliation with the UWSOM-that fosters in-depth, hands-on, clinical experience, and on-site linguistic and cross-cultural training for medical students. In addition, the International Visiting Professor Program was recentlyimplemented in spring 2007. Also, this program will launch an International Faculty-Led Program (FSAP) by implementing the SHP course in the University of Guanajuato School of Medicine, in León, México (summer of 2007). This program emphasizes learning how to be assertive, while demonstrating the appropriate linguistic and clinical skills, and cultural sensitivity to approach Spanish-speaking patients in their own language and setting. These skills could then be applied when dealing with Latino patients here in the U.S.

These international initiatives are in accordance with the objectives of the UWSOM Department of Global Health to help UWSOM/WWAMI become an even more globally-competitive center for high-quality graduate, professional, and research programs. Also, Dr. Saavedra is the principal investigator of follow-up studies to assess the outcome of exposures to enrichment programs on students' academic and professional development in the health field.Other responsibilities include, faculty sponsor of the Selective 2 Independent Investigative Inquiry (III), providing advice on methodology and principles of the critical review of the literature to create research proposals for further publication, and Undeserved Pathway mentor, an accredited program of the UWSOM Department of Family Medicine, providing clinical support and mentorship to medical students interested in underserved Latino and immigrant populations. Also, he provides other mentorship activities to high-school, college and pre-med students.

Dr. Saavedra has several goals within the field of diversity and academic medicine which he would like to see implemented: first, the development of a more standardized teaching and evaluation system to improve the ability of medical students to obtain strategic, clinical data during medical interviews and physical examinations; second, to teach students how to communicate in a culturally-sensitive manner; third, to create a culture of inclusion among all students that supports diverse thoughts and ideas; fourth, to increase the diversity of the academic student body, thus assisting students from underrepresented and/or disadvantaged backgrounds in pursuing M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degrees; and last but not least, to integrate more fully international standards in the practice of medicine into the UWSOM curriculum, and create an institutional/grant-funded program to expose more medical students and faculty members to the realities of international academic medicine and research.

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