UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations

The UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at San Francisco General Hospital carries out innovative research to prevent and treat chronic disease in populations for whom social conditions often conspire to both promote various chronic diseases and make their management more challenging. Founded in 2006, the CVP is based within the UCSF Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine

and is located on the campus of San Francisco General Hospital. Beyond the local communities it serves, CVP is nationally and internationally known for its research in health communication and health policy to reduce health disparities, with special expertise in the social determinants of health, including literacy, food policy, poverty, and minority status, with a focus on the clinical conditions of pre-diabetes, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The CVP mural is a collage of images and ideas generated through a collaborative and participatory design process involving faculty, staff, and patients led by Precita Eyes, a San Francisco Mission District based community muralist organization. Workshops were held with faculty, staff and patients to determine what CVP meant to each person through individual sketches and group brainstorming sessions. Key words, ideas, or images that came from these sessions were physical activity, fresh fruits and vegetables, farmers’ markets, safe community spaces, diverse communities, double helix DNA, challenges of the system and breaking through these systemic barriers to enact change. Additionally, focus was placed on the development of the new San Francisco General Hospital and the diverse patient population that it serves.