The Harvard Home for Family Medicine builds upon the growing community of HMS family medicine students, residents, and attendings engaged in family medicine education, research, and mentorship opportunities. While most of our more active participants are based within the Harvard system, our Harvard Medical School students often graduate to residencies further afield. In this series, we’re thrilled to spotlight what some of our recent HMS Family Medicine students have gone on to achieve.

Name: Daniela Delgado

HMS graduation year: 2017

Residency: Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

What accomplishments are you most proud of since entering medical school?
I am most proud of having the opportunity to work closely with communities and to develop community based projects and interventions, understanding that true health impacts come from interventions in the social spaces in which people live and go beyond the clinical setting.

What are you doing now?
I am a third year family medicine resident at a county hospital, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

What are your future plans?
I plan on becoming a family medicine doctor that partners with communities through advocacy and activism, sees patients of all ages in clinic, and is also connected with an academic center to teach rising physicians.

How did you decide that FM was for you?
Family Medicine is a specialty that is truly holistic and focuses on meeting people where they are at and partnering with families. Within this context, it attracts individuals who are committed to making sustainable social change. I understood that I wanted to be part of a community of people that is invested in partnering with patients and understanding their social context, but also working outside the clinic on addressing the social structures that affect patients' health.

What are the most important things that HMS needs to do to support students interested in FM?
First, I believe it is important to recognize the importance of family medicine as a primary care specialty, which is essential in this country. HMS is dedicated to developing leaders, and is therefore poised to invest in rising leaders for this important primary care specialty, which is responsible for being the first in line in addressing patients' medical needs. There are tangible ways to accomplish this such as establishing a third year mandatory clerkship in family medicine and creating more faculty positions within the leadership for family medicine doctors. 

What advice do you have for current HMS students about FM?
Family medicine thinks about people throughout the lifespan and is able to understand disease within a social justice lens. It is a challenging and demanding specialty, as it requires understanding the needs and disease pathology of patients of all ages. This specialty needs smart and committed individuals willing to take on the challenge of being the doctors first in line to tackle a patient's case in clinic while partnering with communities to address their needs outside the medical setting.

Want to learn more about family medicine at Harvard Medical School? Visit the Harvard Home for Family Medicine today!