UC S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech was founded in 2016 by Dr. Courtney Lyles and Dr. Urmimala Sarkar, whose research and experience caring for patients in the medical safety-net illuminated the stark mismatch between digital health technologies and user needs.
Co-Founder, Leadership Team
Dr. Lyles is a Professor at UC Davis in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Director of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research. A trained health services researcher, she uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine quality of care, health behavior, and health outcomes. Her current work with the online patient portal website, texting platforms, and mobile apps leverages user-centered design and implementation science principles to create as well as spread technologies that are relevant for diverse patient populations.
Co-Founder, Leadership Team
Dr. Sarkar is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF, the Associate Director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, and a primary care physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Richard H. Fine People's Clinic. She focuses on how diverse patients can use technology to better manage their health. Dr. Sarkar has extensive experience with evaluating the effectiveness of technology interventions in real-world settings, and is passionate about making technology usable for all.
Leadership Team
Dr. Aguilera is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley and the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Francisco. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from UCLA. Dr. Aguilera’s research has focused on studying the influence of culture, community and socioeconomic status on mental health along with developing interventions to address health disparities in low-income and minority populations. Dr. Aguilera’s current work has focused on utilizing mobile phone technology to improve mental health interventions in primary care settings with vulnerable populations. He has conducted research using text messaging as a companion to cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for depression to increase engagement and improve outcomes. He is currently developing a personalized, machine learning based texting intervention to improve physical activity among people with comorbid diabetes and depression. He is committed to utilizing innovative technologies to reduce health disparities.
Research Data Analyst
Marika Dy joined the S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech team in 2020 as a Research Data Analyst, supporting Dr. Urmimala Sarkar's research on the impact of innovative digital health technologies on the health of diverse patients. As part of her work, Marika supports research operations and program development. She is currently pursuing her MPH in Community Health Sciences at UCLA and received her BA from Wellesley College.
Research Data Analyst
Kristan Olazo received her MPH in Community Health Education from San Francisco State University and her BS in Physiology with a minor in Asian American Studies also from SF State. As a graduate student, Kristan conducted research on the spectrum of living conditions and housing vulnerability, the role of political participation on Asian American health, and decolonizing approaches to addressing Filipino American mental health.
Research Data Analyst
Jeanette Wong received her BS in Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology and Psychology from Emory University. Jeanette supports S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech's research and implementation efforts to improve health communication and reduce barriers to care among historically marginalized populations. Jeanette is excited to work in the safety-net care setting to help advance health equity.
Program Manager
Nilpa Shah is a Program Manager for the Digital Health Equity Program at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. She provides strategic, programmatic, and operational support for S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech. Nilpa has her MPH from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and BS in Cell Biology and BA in Psychology from UC Davis.
Dr. Brown is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine in the Division of Prevention Science. He holds faculty appointments in the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS), the Center for Vulnerable Populations (CVP), and the Bakar Computational Health Science Institute. He is also the founder and director of the Clinical and Observational Data Excellence (CODE) Lab. CODE Lab’s mission is to help researchers and healthcare workers contribute to creating a Learning Health System by leveraging New Media (i.e., mHealth, social media) and Biomedical Informatics (i.e., semantic harmonization, natural language processing, machine learning, data visualization) to collect data in real-time, improve health and clinical outcomes, and integrate gathered data among and between clinical systems and other research datasets. Through his research, Dr. Brown develops and implements innovative biomedical informatics methods, creates digital health tools, and follows the principals of community-based participatory research to address health disparities among underserved communities, and to create a Learning Health System that is responsive to vulnerable populations, particularly those living with, and at risk for acquiring, HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Fontil is an Assistant Professor at NYU, the Medical Director of Research at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone Health, and a practicing primary care physician. He is committed to using multiple research methodologies to study proactive clinical approaches for disease prevention and cardiovascular risk reduction in disenfranchised populations vulnerable to health disparities.
Dr. Khoong is a primary care physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Her research focuses on using informatics and implementation science to reduce health inequities in chronic diseases among safety net populations.
Dr. Kotwal is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and is dual-board certified in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. His current research focuses on how loneliness and social isolation impact health, and innovative interventions to enhance social connectedness. Dr. Kotwal has a special focus on addressing the needs of older adults, persons living with dementia, caregivers, and persons diagnosed with serious illnesses.
Dr. Ratanawongsa is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF practicing at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. She is also the Chief Medical Informatics Officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Dr. Ratanawongsa focuses her research, teaching, administrative, and clinical work on enhancing communication between patients and providers in safety net health care settings.
Dr. Schillinger is Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and Chief of the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. His work focuses on literacy, health communication, and chronic disease prevention and management. He is also the founding director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, whose mission is to carry out innovative research to prevent and treat chronic disease in populations for whom social conditions often conspire to both promote chronic disease and make its management more challenging.