A passionate advocate for equity, Aparna Gulati, MD, has dedicated her 23-year career to addressing health care disparities in the most vulnerable populations. An innovative leader in The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG), she identifies and implements transformational quality programs that create lasting cultural change.
Dr. Gulati sprang into action during the pandemic, creating drive-through clinics to safely deliver comprehensive care, including cancer, blood pressure, and diabetes checks, to patients in hospital parking lots. To provide culturally sensitive and convenient care to hard-to-reach patients, she engaged a multitude of teams to host health fairs. She started Diversity Saturdays, a program that serves vulnerable communities and provides health screenings and education for up to 400 patients a day.
Collaborating with all departments to close care gaps, Dr. Gulati instituted programs that tackle inequity head-on. She shifted the culture of medicine by designing models of care specifically for African American, Latinx, and Filipino patients. In recognition, her team earned the regionwide Quality Award for innovation.
She maintains a focus on goals for the future while keeping her eye on the reason she chose a profession in medicine: to be an agent of change and do what it takes to get the best care for patients and staff.