Ricky Y. Choi

Pediatrician

Ricky Y. Choi, MD, MPH, FAAP is the Department Head of Pediatrics at Asian Health Services Community Health Center based in Oakland, CA.  There he provides primary care for infants, children, and adolescents from families who speak any of ten different Asian languages.  Dr. Choi is a passionate advocate for improving health care quality and access for low income and immigrant families for which he has published and been interviewed in both ethnic and mainstream media including the Korea Times, New America Media, World Journal, KoreAm Magazine, KQED, and the San Francisco Chronicle.  He has also authored textbook chapters on access to health care for Asian Americans and for Korean Americans.  He is a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.  Dr. Choi serves on the Board of Directors for the National Physicians Alliance and American Academy of Pediatrics Northern California. Dr. Choi has appointments to advisory councils of the California Health and Human Services Agency in the areas of multicultural health, care for children with special health care needs, and pediatric health care quality. His other interests include children's rights, health in North Korea, and the use of technology to improve health behavior. Dr. Choi has degrees from The University of Chicago, Medical University of South Carolina, and Harvard University. He completed his internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) Program. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his talented wife and two spirited children.

Articles

From Invisible to a Player: The Poor in the New Health Care System

37 years ago, at the very tail of the civil rights movement, my community health center (CHC) was established in Oakland to fill an unmet and urgent need. A growing population of immigrants were settling in downtown Oakland and had few choices for health care. Community surveys conducted by local leaders confirmed that residents received significantly less health care than the rest of the population largely due to a shortage of providers and limited English proficiency. And so a group of volunteers and students opened a make shift clinic with a volunteer doctor and an optometrist available for two days a week. As demand grew this little clinic expanded hours and added staff one at a time. Almost four decades later, the clinic has grown to 40+ doctors seeing 20,000 patients who speak any of 10 different languages.