Charles K. Francis

Charles K. Francis, M.D. is an Adjunct Investigator in the Office of Health Disparities.

Dr. Francis was formerly President of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, a private not-for-profit institution for higher education in the health professions located in South Central Los Angeles, and Professor of Medicine at the Charles R. Drew University and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also Past President of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Francis has previously served as Professor of Clinical Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and Chairman, Department of Medicine at the Harlem Hospital Center. Preceding his appointment at Columbia, Dr. Francis was Associate Professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Catherization Laboratory at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

A native of Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Francis is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Following internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he served as a General Medical Officer in the U.S. Air Force. He received his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Boston City Hospital, Tufts University Service and at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He has also held posts in Los Angeles, where he was Assistant Professor of Medicine, at the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School and the University of Southern California Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Martin Luther King, Jr. General Hospital. Dr. Francis also served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

In addition to his interest in racial and ethnic health disparities, medical education and health services research, he has contributed to the literature in the areas of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, thrombolysis in myocardial infarction, hypertensive heart disease, mitral valve insufficiency, AIDS-associated heart disease, access to medical care, health and public policy and health care for minorities.

Dr. Francis is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is the former chair of the Hypertensive Diseases Committee of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Francis served as President of the American Heart Association Western States Affiliate, Los Angeles County Division, and President of the American Heart Association, Connecticut Affiliate and Chair of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association. He has served on the National Board of Directors of the American Heart Association, the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), and the Board of Directors of The New York Academy of Medicine, and is the past Chair of the Board of the Association of Black Cardiologists. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Clinical Center at the NIH and served on the National Advisory Council of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and as co-chair of the Working Group on Coronary Artery Disease in Blacks. He was Principal Investigator of the Urban Health Institute at Harlem Hospital Center, a research project on outcomes and medical effectiveness in minority populations funded by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now AHRQ).

Dr. Francis is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is the recipient of the Louis B. Russell Memorial Award presented by the American Heart Association, the Daniel D. Savage, M.D., Memorial Award presented by the Association of Black Cardiologists, the Distinguished Alumni Faculty Award, Cardiology Division, Yale University School of Medicine and the Jefferson Alumni Achievement Award, Jefferson Medical College.

Contact information: (212) 822-7288;cfrancis@nyam.org