Dr. Alice Chen is the deputy director and chief medical officer for the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN), and professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
In her role at SFHN, Dr. Chen is responsible for providing clinical and operational leadership, vision, and direction for the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s nearly $2 billion a year safety net delivery system that encompasses primary care, specialty care, maternal and child health, mental health, substance use, acute care, trauma, long term care, jail health, and homeless health services. She has led the Network’s work responding to value-based payments, addressing patient-level social determinants of health, and creating an integrated system of care.
She previously spent a decade at UCSF based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG), where she served as chief integration officer, medical director of the General Medicine Clinic, and director of eConsult, which has become a nationally recognized model to improve specialty care. In addition to her delivery system leadership roles, she also served as core faculty for the UCSF San Francisco General Hospital primary care internal medicine residency program, mentoring residents based at ZSFG. Prior to that, she worked in community health, health policy and advocacy, and philanthropy with a focus on the underserved.
Dr. Chen is known for her work with vulnerable populations and delivery system innovations to improve access and quality of care for safety net systems. She has published over 45 book chapters, research and peer-reviewed articles, including in the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs, and has served on the board of several non-profits and foundations as well as on expert advisory committees, including for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, Aetna, the American Hospital Association, and America’s Essential Hospitals.
A graduate of Yale University, Stanford University Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Chen's training includes a primary care internal medicine residency and chief residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is an alumna of the Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, the Soros Physician Advocacy Fellowship, the California HealthCare Foundation Leadership Program and the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship. She maintains an active clinical practice at ZSFG in both primary care and inpatient medicine, and is a longtime physician volunteer in Alameda County’s tattoo removal program for at risk youth.