Internist
NYC Health + Hospitals/Sydenham

Caring for the Latino Community in Harlem

Colleagues praise Dr. Francisco Santoni for his commitment to exemplary care and for his service to the Hispanic community in Harlem. He is recognized as the highest-performing physician at Sydenham this year on his chronic disease metrics in both diabetes and hypertension.

Beloved at Sydenham since joining the medical staff in 1994, Dr. Santoni serves as a medical advocate for the Spanish-speaking population served by the community health center. He champions collaborative care of patients with both mental health and chronic disease and was an early adopter and champion of “cycle time” improvements.

He trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at New York Medical College and at Hospital Damas in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He credits his family doctor in the South Bronx, “who treated me and many others regardless of the ability to pay,” for inspiring him to become a physician.

That commitment resonates today as he serves a medically disadvantaged community “with higher morbidity and mortality rates due to less access to primary prevention and pre-morbid care, and discontinuity of care,” he says.

Accountability in the practice of medicine is an essential value for Dr. Santoni. “Excellence is ideal but not always obtainable,” he says. “However, accountability in our work and its product is essential for delivering the best health care that we can.”

What motivates his commitment to practice medicine, he says, is “knowing that when a patient leaves my room I have done my best to achieve the goals of all medical care: to relieve suffering, to prevent future suffering or to prolong life.”

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