Sunita Mutha, MD

Professor of Clinical Medicine

Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP directs Healthforce Center at UCSF. In addition, she is a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and associate dean for academic affairs in the UCSF School of Dentistry. As director of Healthforce Center, Dr. Mutha leads the organization’s efforts to increase workforce knowledge, develop leadership capacity, and nurture networks across silos to advance health equity.

Dr. Mutha’s scholarly work has focused on overcoming language barriers in health, cultural competence training for clinicians, and improvement interventions to reduce disparities in care. She has served on national committees including the Joint Commission’s Expert Advisory Panel guiding the development of hospital standards for culturally competent patient-centered care and the National Quality Forum’s Cultural Competence Steering Committee. Dr. Mutha serves on an expert advisory committee to develop a scorecard to measure the implementation of high-quality primary care and inform national and state policy.

Dr. Mutha is a member of the board of directors of Insure the Uninsured Project, a nonprofit that promotes innovative and workable policy solutions that expand health care access and improve the health of all Californians. She also serves as the national advisory board chair for Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS) at UCSF. She previously served on the board of directors for Brown and Toland Medical Group, a comprehensive, multi-specialty independent practice association in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Publications
  1. Karliner LS, Gregorich SE, Mutha S, Kaplan C, Livaudais-Toman J, Pathak S, Garcia ME, Diamond L. Language Access Systems Improvement initiative: impact on professional interpreter utilisation, a natural experiment. BMJ open 2024. PMID: 38176864


  2. Garcia ME, Williams M, Mutha S, Diamond LC, Jih J, Handley MA, Pathak S, Karliner LS. Language-Concordant Care: a Qualitative Study Examining Implementation of Physician Non-English Language Proficiency Assessment. Journal of general internal medicine 2023. PMID: 37620723


  3. Garcia ME, Mutha S, Napoles AM, Malevanchik L, Williams M, Karliner LS. "Long Overdue": Nurse and Resident Physician Perspectives on Implementation of Dual-Handset Interpreter Phones in the Inpatient Setting. Health equity 2023. PMID: 36876231


  4. Fraze TK, Mutha S. Be Kind. Use Systems. Improve Care. Health services research 2023. PMID: 36704828


  5. Pathak S, Gregorich SE, Diamond LC, Mutha S, Seto E, Livaudais-Toman J, Karliner L. Patient Perspectives on the Quality of Professional Interpretation: Results from LASI Study. Journal of general internal medicine 2021. PMID: 33515189


  6. Lee JS, Nápoles A, Mutha S, Pérez-Stable EJ, Gregorich SE, Livaudais-Toman J, Karliner LS. Hospital discharge preparedness for patients with limited English proficiency: A mixed methods study of bedside interpreter-phones. Volume 101 of Issue 1. Patient education and counseling 2017. PMID: 28774652


  7. Karliner L, Marks A, Mutha S. Reducing Health Care Disparities for Minority Women in the Era of the Affordable Care Act: Opportunities within Primary Care. Volume 27 of Issue 2. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2016. PMID: 27180684


  8. Stephen R. Marrone, Sunita Mutha, Gayle Tang. Chapter 9: Organizational Cultural Competency. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 2010. PMID:


  9. Wilson-Stronks A, Mutha S. From the perspective of CEOs: what motivates hospitals to embrace cultural competence? Journal of healthcare management / American College of Healthcare Executives 2010. PMID: 21077583


  10. Karliner LS, Mutha S. Achieving quality in health care through language access services: lessons from a California public hospital. Volume 25 of Issue 1. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality 2009. PMID: 19955512


  11. Assemi M, Mutha S, Hudmon KS. Evaluation of a train-the-trainer program for cultural competence. American journal of pharmaceutical education 2007. PMID: 19503694


  12. Karliner LS, Jacobs EA, Chen AH, Mutha S. Do professional interpreters improve clinical care for patients with limited English proficiency? A systematic review of the literature. Volume 42 of Issue 2. Health services research 2007. PMID: 17362215


  13. Jacobs E, Chen AH, Karliner LS, Agger-Gupta N, Mutha S. The need for more research on language barriers in health care: a proposed research agenda. Volume 84 of Issue 1. The Milbank quarterly 2006. PMID: 16529570


  14. Ogrinc G, Mutha S. A one-stop health care request. American family physician 2004. PMID: 14971851


  15. Ogrinc G, Headrick LA, Mutha S, Coleman MT, O'Donnell J, Miles PV. A framework for teaching medical students and residents about practice-based learning and improvement, synthesized from a literature review. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2003. PMID: 12857698


  16. Ogrinc G, Mutha S, Irby DM. Evidence for longitudinal ambulatory care rotations: a review of the literature. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2002. PMID: 12114141


  17. Stubblefield C, Mutha S. Provider-patient roles in chronic disease management. Journal of allied health 2002. PMID: 12041002


  18. Kim LE, Jeffe DB, Evanoff BA, Mutha S, Freeman B, Fraser J. Improved compliance with universal precautions in the operating room following an educational intervention. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 2001. PMID: 11700882


  19. Mutha S, Norman G, O'Neil E. Medical practice 2010: how we get there. The Western journal of medicine 2000. PMID: 10778386


  20. Mutha S, Bellack JP, O'Neil EH. Academic health centers: a future of struggles and new identities. The Western journal of medicine 1999. PMID: 10578686


  21. Kim LE, Evanoff BA, Parks RL, Jeffe DB, Mutha S, Haase C, Fraser VJ. Compliance with Universal Precautions among emergency department personnel: implications for prevention programs. American journal of infection control 1999. PMID: 10511495


  22. Mutha S, Jeffe DB, Kim LE, L'Ecuyer PB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ. Healthcare workers' perceptions of occupational exposure. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1999. PMID: 10501253


  23. Evanoff B, Kim L, Mutha S, Jeffe D, Haase C, Andereck D, Fraser V. Compliance with universal precautions among emergency department personnel caring for trauma patients. Annals of emergency medicine 1999. PMID: 9922411


  24. Akduman D, Kim LE, Parks RL, L'Ecuyer PB, Mutha S, Jeffe DB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ. Use of personal protective equipment and operating room behaviors in four surgical subspecialties: personal protective equipment and behaviors in surgery. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1999. PMID: 10064214


  25. Skeff KM, Mutha S. Role models--guiding the future of medicine. The New England journal of medicine 1998. PMID: 9869675


  26. Donna B. Jeffe, Sunita Mutha, Lynn E. Kim, Bradley A. Evanoff, Paul B. L'Ecuyer, Victoria J. Fraser. Does Clinical Experience Affect Medical Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Compliance With Universal Precautions?. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1998. PMID:


  27. Jeffe DB, Mutha S, Kim LE, Evanoff BA, L'Ecuyer PB, Fraser VJ. Does clinical experience affect medical students' knowledge, attitudes, and compliance with universal precautions? Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1998. PMID: 9801285


  28. Donna B. Jeffe, Sunita Mutha, Paul B. L'Ecuyer, Lynn E. Kim, Renee B. Singal, Bradley A. Evanoff, Victoria J. Fraser. Healthcare Workers' Attitudes and Compliance With Universal Precautions Gender, Occupation, and Specialty Differences. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1997. PMID:


  29. Jeffe DB, Mutha S, L'Ecuyer PB, Kim LE, Singal RB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ. Healthcare workers' attitudes and compliance with universal precautions: gender, occupation, and specialty differences. Infection control and hospital epidemiology 1997. PMID: 9350464


  30. Mutha S, Takayama JI, O'Neil EH. Insights into medical students' career choices based on third- and fourth-year students' focus-group discussions. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 1997. PMID: 9236475


  31. Fine MJ, Smith MA, Carson CA, Mutha SS, Sankey SS, Weissfeld LA, Kapoor WN. Prognosis and outcomes of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. A meta-analysis. JAMA 1996. PMID: 8531309


  32. Karen Seal, Sunita Mutha. Enhancing faculty mentoring of medical students. Teaching and learning in medicine 1996. PMID:


  33. Mutha S, McMurray JE. Salary inequities and health care costs. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 1995. PMID: 7575909


  34. Seifer SD, O'Neil EH, Mutha S. Enhancing professionalism. Annals of internal medicine 1994. PMID: 8085700


  35. Linzer M, Slavin T, Mutha S, Takayama JI, Branda L, VanEyck S, McMurray JE, Rabinowitz HK. Admission, recruitment, and retention: finding and keeping the generalist-oriented student. SGIM Task Force on Career Choice in Primary Care and Internal Medicine. Journal of general internal medicine 1994. PMID: 8014739