Maria Garcia, MD, MPH, MAS
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

Dr. Garcia completed residency training in Internal Medicine at UCSF, in the San Francisco General Hospital Primary Care Program, and subsequently the UCSF Primary Care Research Fellowship. During her fellowship, she developed an interest in improving mental health service delivery for individuals with limited English proficiency. Dr. Garcia has researched the unique challenges that patients with co-morbid mental health and chronic diseases face and focused on implementation work in mental health integration and improvement of service delivery for populations with language barriers.

• Language-Concordant Care: a Qualitative Study Examining Implementation of Physician Non-English Language Proficiency Assessment.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2023 Garcia ME, Williams M, Mutha S, Diamond LC, Jih J, Handley MA, Pathak S, Karliner LS
• "How's your mood": Recorded physician mental health conversations with Chinese and Latino patients in routine primary care visits.
  Patient education and counseling 2023 Ho EY, Karliner LS, Leung G, Harb R, Aguayo Ramirez G, Garcia ME
• "Long Overdue": Nurse and Resident Physician Perspectives on Implementation of Dual-Handset Interpreter Phones in the Inpatient Setting.
  Health equity 2023 Garcia ME, Mutha S, Napoles AM, Malevanchik L, Williams M, Karliner LS
• Validity of the Chinese Language Patient Health Questionnaire 2 and 9: A Systematic Review.
  Health equity 2022 Yin L, Teklu S, Pham H, Li R, Tahir P, Garcia ME
• Assessing Medical Student Readiness to Navigate Language Barriers in Telehealth: Cross-sectional Survey Study.
  JMIR medical education 2022 Yin L, Ng F, Rutherford-Rojas M, Williams M, Cornes S, Fernandez A, Garcia ME, Khoong EC
• Equitability of Depression Screening After Implementation of General Adult Screening in Primary Care.
  JAMA network open 2022 Garcia ME, Hinton L, Neuhaus J, Feldman M, Livaudais-Toman J, Karliner LS
• Lack of Racial and Ethnic Diversity Among Addiction Physicians.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2022 Garcia ME, Coffman J, Jordan A, Martin M
• Prevalence and Sociodemographic Correlates of Unmet Need for Mental Health Counseling Among Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) 2021 Nagata JM, Ganson KT, Bonin SL, Twadell KL, Garcia ME, Langrock O, Vittinghoff E, Tsai AC, Weiser SD, Abdel Magid HS
• Accuracy of Primary Care Medical Home Designation in a Specialty Mental Health Clinic.
  The Psychiatric quarterly 2021 Garcia ME, Goldman EL, Thomas M, Chan S, Mitsuishi F, Schillinger D, Mangurian C
• Primary Care Physician Recognition and Documentation of Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese and Latinx Patients During Routine Visits: A Cross-Sectional Study.
  Health equity 2021 Garcia ME, Hinton L, Gregorich SE, Livaudais-Toman J, Kaplan CP, Feldman M, Karliner L
• Unmet Mental Health Need Among Chinese and Latino Primary Care Patients: Intersection of Ethnicity, Gender, and English Proficiency.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2019 Garcia ME, Hinton L, Gregorich SE, Livaudais-Toman J, Kaplan C, Karliner L
• Language-Concordant Primary Care Physicians for a Diverse Population: The View from California.
  Health equity 2019 Garcia ME, Bindman AB, Coffman J
• Which Complex Patients Should Be Referred for Intensive Care Management? A Mixed-Methods Analysis.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2018 Garcia ME, Uratsu CS, Sandoval-Perry J, Grant RW
• Collaborative Care for Depression among Patients with Limited English Proficiency: a Systematic Review.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2017 Garcia ME, Ochoa-Frongia L, Moise N, Aguilera A, Fernandez A
• Nonpsychiatric Outpatient Care for Adults With Serious Mental Illness in California: Who Is Being Left Behind?
  Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) 2017 Garcia ME, Schillinger D, Vittinghoff E, Creasman JM, Knapp P, Newcomer JW, Mangurian C
• Capsule Commentary on Kroll et al., Benzodiazepines Are Prescribed More Frequently to Patients Already at Risk for Benzodiazepine-Related Adverse Events in Primary Care.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2016 Garcia ME
• Intergenerational education mobility and depressive symptoms in a population of Mexican origin.
  Annals of epidemiology 2016 Ward JB, Haan MN, Garcia ME, Lee A, To TM, Aiello AE
• Diabetes Mellitus as a Risk Factor for Development of Depressive Symptoms in a Population-Based Cohort of Older Mexican Americans.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2016 Garcia ME, Lee A, Neuhaus J, Gonzalez H, To TM, Haan MN
• Community Health Workers: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle for Complex Patients With Diabetes?
  Journal of general internal medicine 2015 Garcia ME, Grant RW
• Association of maternal depression and infant nutritional status among women living with HIV in Tanzania.
  Maternal & child nutrition 2014 Kaaya S, Garcia ME, Li N, Lienert J, Twayigize W, Spiegelman D, Smith Fawzi MC
• "I didn't know that ..." patient perceptions of print information, education, and communication related to HIV/AIDS treatment.
  Tanzania journal of health research 2011 Stone CA, Siril H, Nampanda E, Garcia ME, Tito J, Nambiar D, Chalamilla G, Kaaya SF
• Health-care worker engagement in HIV-related quality improvement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
  International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care 2011 Garcia ME, Li MS, Siril H, Hawkins C, Kaaya S, Ismail S, Chalamilla G, Mdingi SG, Hirschhorn LR
• Stress, motivation and professional satisfaction among health care workers in HIV/AIDS care and treatment centers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study.
  East African journal of public health 2011 Siril H, Hirschhorn LR, Hawkins C, Garcia ME, Li MS, Ismail S, Mdingi SG, Chalamilla G, Fawzi W, Kaaya S