“Dr. Todd Sakakibara is a primary care physician at Vancouver Coastal Health’s Three Bridges Community Health Centre. He has made a long-term commitment to improving health care for residents of Vancouver’s vulnerable and under-served populations. His innovative approach to community medicine can be seen in his leadership of the Vancouver BOOST Collaborative at his clinic that sees the highest concentration of opioid overdose deaths. Improving access to integrated, evidence-based care for opioid users has resulted in a significant increase in the number of individuals who receive and remain on opioid treatment therapy.
Dr. Sakakibara is also an educator, researcher and mentor in the areas of LGBTQ health, substance use, mental health, transgender care, and addictions. Working with UBC’s Community Health Initiative, he developed an innovative, multidisciplinary rotation model to expose students and residents to the impact of the social determinants of health for marginalized populations in the downtown eastside.
In 2015, he was involved in a continuing professional development workshop called “But I Don’t Have any Gay Patients! Care for Men Who have Sex with Men,” which aims to build capacity for family physicians to provide primary care for this patient population, and move beyond sexual health into more complex issues.
For his commitment to improving health care in vulnerable and under-served communities, Dr. Sakakibara has been named this year’s Health Care Hero for Vancouver Coastal Health!”
Learn more on VCH physician Dr. Sakakibara and end-of-life initiative iPACE recognized at BC Health Care Awards via Vancouver Coastal Health.
UBC Family Practice Residency Program: Abbotsford-Mission Site 