Marlene Martin, MD
Associate Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

Marlene Martin, MD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF and a hospitalist at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). Drawn to medicine to address health inequities and social injustices, her interests lie in systems improvement and innovation with a focus on addiction, community partnerships, Latine health, and care transitions.

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Marlene's bilingual and bicultural Mexican immigrant background drew her to work in the safety net. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and is a first-generation college graduate. Marlene attended college and medical school at Stanford, was a NIH Fogarty Scholar in Peru, and completed internal medicine residency at UCSF.

She worked at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for two years where she led inpatient addiction work before joining the UCSF at SFGH hospitalist division. At SFGH she is a former member of the Health Equity Council and co-chair of the Care Transitions Task Force. She was a coach for students between 2019-2023 in the UCSF San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (PRIME) and is dedicated to diversifying the healthcare workforce.

Through the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence (LCOE), Marlene led the implementation of a Latine COVID-19 Enhanced Case Investigation and Contact Tracing in partnership with Latine promotores between 2020-2021 and served as a technical assistant in the community health worker academy from 2021-2022. Through her role as the Director of Addiction Initiatives for the UCSF LCOE she aims to improve the health of Latine individuals in San Francisco with unhealthy substance use and develop novel care models that can be implemented in other settings. With California Health Care Foundation funding, she is co-leading the Program for Education in Drugs and Alcohol for Latine (PEDAL), a Spanish-language curriculum. In partnership with UCSF, the National Harm Reduction Coalition, and 4 Latine CBOs in San Francisco, she co-developed, implemented, and evaluated PEDAL which trained 20 promotores (community health workers) to communicate about substance use, recognize unhealthy use, and link community members to services to both prevent and treat addiction.

Marlene is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine and founded and directs the nationally recognized Addiction Care Team (ACT) since 2019. ACT is an interprofessional consult service that provides compassionate care focused on compassionate evidence-based treatment, harm reduction, and linkage to care for patients with substance use disorders. Through this, she has worked with hospital and community partners to address stigma through campus substance use policies, harm reduction efforts, clinician and nursing education (ACT Nurse Liaison Program), and an anti-stigma campaign.

Awards

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  • Council of Master Clinicians, UCSF, 2024
  • Clinical Innovator Award, UCSF Department of Medicine, 2022
  • COVID-19 Heroes Award, California Senate District 11, 2021
  • Social Justice Award, UCSF Division of Hospital Medicine, 2021
  • Fellow, California Health Care Foundation, 2020-2022
  • Top 40 under 40 Leaders in Minority Health, National Minority Quality Forum, 2020
  • John A. Watson Scholar, University of California, San Francisco, 2019-2022
  • Young Physician of the Year, National Hispanic Medical Association, 2019

Education & Training

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  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training UCSF 2018
  • Residency Internal Medicine UCSF 2015
  • MD School of Medicine Stanford University 2012
  • BA, Honors Human Biology Stanford University 2006

Interests

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  • systems improvement in the safety net
  • community partnerships
  • addiction medicine
  • workforce diversity
  • advocacy
  • disparities among immigrants and LEP
  • care transitions
  • STEM mentoring
  • leadership

Websites

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Publications (39)

Top publication keywords:
Substance-Related DisordersBehavior, AddictiveCentral Nervous System StimulantsAcute PainUndocumented ImmigrantsSafety-net ProvidersMicroscopic PolyangiitisHospitalsThiamine DeficiencyOpioid-Related DisordersAddiction MedicineAnalgesics, OpioidBuprenorphineSubstance Withdrawal SyndromePatient Transfer

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