R. Christopher Searles, M.D., FAAFP

Co-Director

On July 1, 2007 , after serving as Associate Director for two years and completing a National Institute for Program Director Development (NIPDD) fellowship, Dr. Chris Searles assumed the co-directorship of the UCSD Combined Program.  A San Diego native, Dr. Searles earned his undergraduate degree in Writing at UCSD and his medical degree from the University of California, Davis.  The bulk of his clinical practice is spent in the care of the underserved and teaching residents from several residency training programs. His work week finds him on the mobile medical unit, at St. Vincent de Paul, at Hoover High School, and at the Scripps Family Medicine Residency program in Chula Vista. He is dedicated to resident education and manages a number of rotations and curricular aspects in the combined and traditional residency programs and is the current behavioral medicine editor of the upcoming new edition of Swanson's Family Medicine Board Review.

Dr. Searles is very active in the community and has a special interest in finding creative ways to address preventable disease. His passion for preventive health is fueled by his firm belief that by finding community partners with similar goals we can all "work smarter" to address the health disparities that exist for families that live and work below the poverty line. He is the founder of RecreationRx.org which is a "recreation prescription" initiative to bring safe and structured activity to poor families through partnerships between physicians and regional recreation organizations.

He also has a strong interest in the area of medical professionalism and patient-physician communication having run several workshops for medical students and residents.  He established and directs the Professional Boundaries Program at the UCSD Physician Assessment and Clinical Education (PACE) Program which is the "gold standard program" for the Medical Board of California.