Roee Astor, MD, MPH
I spent my early childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan, moved to Los Angeles at age 11, and have spent most of my time in sunny Southern California since. I attended USC for both undergraduate and medical school, where I have been involved in working with populations experiencing homelessness in research, clinical, and policy realms. I am honored and excited to join the UCSD community! In particular I strive to learn to provide exceptional, integrated care for our patients who have significant mental health and other medical comorbidities.
At USC, as an undergraduate, I had the privilege of shadowing physicians at CHLA once a week in the HIV Youth Clinic and the Transgender Youth Clinic. It was here that I first got to know many teens from the Hollywood area who were experiencing homelessness. I loved the team care dynamic at CHLA and also learning of the resilience many of these teens demonstrated. Wanting to continue working with this population, later in Undergraduate I got involved with social networking research studying sexual risk-taking behaviors and how they relate to the kinds of homelessness experiences (i.e. couch surfing or staying with a stranger versus sleeping at a shelter, for instance), among homeless adolescents in the Los Angeles area.
In medical school (also at USC), at LA County +USC Medical Center, throughout most of my clinical rotations, I continued to work with homeless patients, many of which have both mental illness and other medical comorbidities. During 3rd year of medical school I participated in an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, where I worked as both a medical student and case navigator for some of these patients experiencing homelessness---calling case workers, building relationships, and helping the patient where they are at, to secure housing, along with management of their mental and/or other medical illnesses.
Between 3rd and 4th year of Medical School I took a year to complete a Master in Public Health with a focus on homelessness health policy at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. While in Boston, for my practicum project I conducted an international landscape scan on current homelessness prevention programs for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, offering suggestions for where they should focus future homelessness prevention efforts.
It is a privilege to continue to work with homeless individuals on a one-on-one basis during residency here in San Diego. St. Vincent de Paul clinic offers a natural opportunity to treat patients where they are at, and often to integrate treating their mental illness and other medical illnesses in one visit.
Intern year at the combo FM/Psych program covers a vast array of specialties and hospitals, all of which require flexibility, patience, and curiosity to get the most out of your residency experience. The leadership and senior residents of the combo program are ever present to offer support in the form of advice on “big picture” questions down to the details of EHR quirks at different hospitals, and also serve as role models and friends throughout training. It is a group of clinicians who “get it” in terms of what matters in medicine, and remain committed to treating individuals who need it most in our society as well as offering support to their friends around them as they make their way through training.
Outside of medicine, I enjoy writing short stories and poetry (I am also an avid socially conscious Hip Hop fan), being outside, and spending time with friends and family.
