Christine Evans, MD
Prior to completing her M.D. at George Washington University School of Medicine, Christine and enjoyed a 12 year career in communications and business consulting, with an emphasis in healthcare technology after earning a B.A. in Journalism and Fine Art.
Although she spent most her adult life on the East Coast before coming to UCSD, Christine grew up in the farmlands of rural Mississippi, oldest daughter of a liberal-minded farmer and public school teacher. As a Combined resident, Christine has drawn upon the confluence of this experience, as well as skills honed as a student of journalism and, later, as a consultant, to serve and empower both her patients and co-residents in achieving their goals.
Over the course of her training at UCSD, Christine has sought to be an advocate for both her patients as well as for the preservation of the physician-patient relationship in modern medical practice. Beyond her everyday clinical duties, she has assisted numerous patients navigating the process to obtain supplemental disability income with the goal of transitioning out homelessness, including testifying at appeals hearings for high-risk cases. Her resident-based education efforts have centered on providing her peers with a greater awareness of the relationship between the “therapeutic alliance” and medical outcomes. In September 2015, she organized a Journal Club discussion of recent studies linking provider empathy with improved HA1C and lipid control. She has also lectured on evidence-based, brief, targeted psychotherapeutic strategies for use by primary providers in the focused medical encounter, and has developed case demonstrations for resident teaching.
Actively involved in health policy, including ACA and Mental Health Parity reforms, throughout her medical education in D.C., Christine has maintained a keen interest in emerging models of Collaborative/Team-based Care over the course of residency. In her PGY-4 year, she began working with UCSD faculty to carve out a Collaborative Care elective rotation for residents at Mission Valley VA Outpatient clinic, which will pilot this academic year. For her PGY-5 project, Christine also researched and developed a curriculum for facilitating Shared Medical Visits for Chronic Pain within high-risk populations, based on an aggregate of evidence-based approaches for chronic pain and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, respectively; she and her co-resident hope to launch the service at SVDP in March 2016.
When not at work, Christine is often busy being a single mother, and makes spending time with her son, now age 14, a priority when he is at home. As a Southerner, she enjoys entertaining, regularly hosting resident socials or dinner parties with friends, and always has coffee warm and an open door for friends and colleagues looking to unwind. She enjoys shopping local estate sales on weekends for antiques and “fix up” projects, furniture refinishing and decorating.
