Leaders in the Frontlines: Dr. Robert Rodriguez - Professor of Emergency Medicine and ER Physician at UCSF

Dr. Robert Rodriguez has his hands full these days. Not only is he Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine and ER physician at San Francisco General Hospital, but his role as author and researcher focusing on the stress and anxiety levels among physicians during the pandemic led to the Biden administration naming him a key advisor in the COVID-19 Taskforce.

Born to Mexican parents in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, his passion for medicine and relentless commitment to improving health care for under-served populations resulted from a seed planted very early on in his life: “I became interested in medicine when I was really young. My mother was a high school teacher and she instilled in me a love of science when I was about 6 years old. We used to read the periodic table instead of Curious George, and I knew I wanted to do something in this field ever since.”

Rodriguez was eventually admitted to the University of Notre Dame and volunteered in an ER close by, an experience which narrowed his interest in the scientific fields to a passion for medicine. -After graduating summa cum laude, he was accepted to Harvard Medical School.- “Harvard appreciates diversity and I wasn't the only Latino, but there is a misconception that Latinos and African-Americans only get into schools like Harvard because of diversity type issues and I don't agree with that perception. I was a National Hispanic Scholar and also volunteered with research at the NIH, so Harvard appreciates efforts like these. My experience there was tremendous and I got to work with some amazing teachers.”

After Harvard Rodriguez completed an Emergency Medicine residency at UCLA and a Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Stanford which led to his current work as a lead San Francisco General Hospital emergency physician. “Taking care of patients in the emergency room and intensive care unit is something I love. Working at a public safety net hospital that is also a major trauma center means we take care of the poorest of the poor; we have a lot of homeless persons and undocumented immigrants, and we treat everyone that walks through our doors regardless of whether they have health insurance. We take care of a lot of critically ill patients, and I'm proud of the care that we provide.” As Professor and Associate Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF Dr. Rodriguez has mentored over 150 students at all levels of education in their quest for careers in medicine. “We have a very strong emergency medicine residency, so as a teacher I get to share my experience with medical students and residents in training, another aspect of my work that I enjoy very much.”

“The third part of my job as a researcher focuses on issues related to trauma and to underserved populations, especially Latino immigrants. Most recently I've been concentrating on the mental health of frontline workers during COVID-19. We are past the one year anniversary of the pandemic, and this crisis has severely impacted emergency and intensive care physicians, so it is important to look at the long term effect of stress levels and post traumatic stress disorders on frontline providers. In the beginning of the pandemic and all the way to summer we were in a very difficult situation; we had concerns about PPE, testing was insufficient and we didn't know enough about the disease so we had to isolate from our families because there was a lot of uncertainty about transmission; so it was extremely difficult to cope with the risks we were taking.”

“Today the situation it is much better from every standpoint” he reflects. “Our numbers are lower, hospital staff has been vaccinated and we have better diagnosis and treatments. But we are not out of the woods yet. The new variants are a concern so the pandemic is not over, but I am optimistic that as we get more people vaccinated by mid summer will be closer to normal. We will still have outbreaks, so we need to continue to be smart and wear masks.”

Latinos have been hit hard with COVID-19, and in July 2020 when the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville TX experienced a surge Dr. Rodriguez went back to his hometown to volunteer. The two weeks he spent there proved to be the most difficult of his career. “It was very challenging, the hospital was overwhelmed with very sick patients, at times with 50 or 60 of them requiring ICU-level care. We’d be running from emergency code to emergency code, trying to keep patients alive. And it was extremely difficult to treat them without the proper resources. This is the hospital where I was born and also where my mother spent her last days before she passed away six years ago, so it was a very emotional and trying experience, seeing how the virus had hurt my community.”

“But it was also inspiring to see how people came together” Rodriguez continues. “At the end of our shifts there were always people cheering us on, singing and praying, supporting us anyway they could. It was also very inspiring to see the level of spirit and commitment from our healthcare workers who made huge sacrifices.”

The disparity in how COVID-19 affects Latinos is all encompassing: “At our hospital in San Francisco Latinos make up for 15% of the population, but they make up about 70% or more of the COVID-19 cases. So it is way up. In my opinion this has to do with three factors: Number one Latinos are more commonly essential workers and hold jobs like farming and meatpacking that don't allow them to isolate. The second is the socio-economic aspects, like shared housing and other disparities. Thirdly Latinos have a higher incidence of diabetes which puts them at higher risk when infected. COVID-19 related deaths in Latinos are two times higher than in whites.”

Dr. Rodriguez is also conducting research on vaccination hesitancy among Latinos in 15 hospitals around the country. “When it comes to this topic the misconceptions are that the vaccine is not safe and that it hasn't been tested enough. And none of this is true. The vaccine is extremely safe, and it has been tested in hundreds of thousands of people in clinical trials. Today over 150 million people have been fully vaccinated. So we know a lot about it, but still many Latinos express concern about side effects and not wanting to be the first in their communities, and it is key to address this to move forward.”

Last November Rodriguez received a call from one of the top people in the Biden administration asking him to be a part of the COVID-19 task force, which he considers an honor. Since last summer he has been advising members of Congress and also speaks regularly to members of the administration about issues that concern the Latino population and emergency care.

“Professionally one of the main lessons that I learned though this experience is that you can't ignore science, and you cannot let politics interfere” he shares as we finalize our chat. “Many of the problems that arose in the United States were because people were politicizing the pandemic, and you really have to approach it as scientifically as you can. Personally what I have learned is that I love the strength and resilience of the Latino community. Going down to volunteer in my hometown of Brownsville was an honor, I have learned that Latinos have a wonderful spirit, and that if by coming together we can overcome this, we can overcome anything.”