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Raul Vazquez (born January 12, 1963), is a Puerto-Rican primary care physician, philanthropist, the founder and chief executive officer of the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network, and the founder and president of Urban Family Practice P.C. and Westside Urgent Care in Buffalo, New York.
Vazquez was born in the South Bronx, New York, to a single mother. He was raised with two younger brothers. Vazquez often accompanied his uncle on trips to the local hospital emergency room, and felt distressed because neither the staff nor the physician could understand his uncle's Spanish. From that point, he had aspired to become a doctor, and vowed to alleviate that barrier by becoming a doctor for the misunderstood and underrepresented people. [1]
Vazquez was the first in his family to graduate from high school. After being selected by ten out of eleven medical schools, he attended Fordham University, where he received his undergraduate degree in 1985. In 1989, he obtained his Medical Degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he received a Regents Scholarship. From 1989 to 1992, Vazquez completed a family medicine residency program at Deaconess Hospital and Buffalo General Hospital in Buffalo, New York.
Vazquez is board certified and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has held several administrative and staff physician responsibilities at Sheehan Memorial Hospital, Buffalo Columbus Hospital, and Kaleida Health Systems. He also holds an associate clinical professorship from The State University of New York at Buffalo's Department of Family Medicine. He has been linked to pharmaceutical corporations such as Pfizer, GlaxoWellcome, Eli Lilly and Company, and Merck & Co. as a speaker on the use of medications to treat various medical conditions.
On August 5, 1996, Vazquez opened Urban Family Practice P.C., a private family practice. In October 2003, Urban Family Practice moved to a fully computerized medical facility built on the Lower West Side of Buffalo, New York. In 2009, Vazquez founded and currently serves as the president of Westside Urgent Care. In 2012, the New York State Department of Health approved the designation of Urban Family Practice P.C. as a Provider-led Medicaid Health Home, as part of a second phase of health home implementations for the state. [2]
In 2008, he co-founded the Raul and Toni Vazquez Foundation, Inc. to protect and enhance the abilities of non-profit health care organizations to serve society and their individual communities. Through research, public education, and advocacy, the foundation seeks to enhance the performance of non-profit health care organizations in carrying out their unique roles and responsibilities.
In 2009, Vazquez founded and incorporated the Greater Buffalo United Independent Physician Association, later known as the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network or GBUAHN where he currently serves as president and chief executive officer. Both Vazquez's companies employ over 100 people in the Buffalo Metropolitan area. As an advocate for the minority community of Western New York, Vazquez has been overcoming biases against communities of color through the funding of care by both Urban Family Practice P.C. and GBUAHN [3] [ circular reference ]. GBUAHN became part of the Rite Aid Alliance, a program designed to increase patient compliance with and understanding of doctors' orders, resulting in better health outcomes. GBUAHN is one of Rite Aid's first partners in Buffalo, New York. [4]
In 2016, Vazquez founded the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Care Organization or GBUACO. [5]
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(February 2017) |
On June 6, 2016, Dr. Vazquez was appointed to the Statewide Multicultural Advisory Committee (SMAC).
On November 21, 2015, Dr. Vazquez and his wife Toni were awarded the Buffalo Urban League Family Life Award
In June 2009, Vazquez was nominated by Governor David Paterson, and approved by the New York State Senate to serve as a member of the NYS Medicaid Advisory Committee. In June 2012, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo nominated, and the NYS Senate approved Vazquez to serve on the Minority Health Council.
Other awards and honors include:
Vazquez has served on the board of directors for numerous diverse organizations, including:
A strong advocate of using technological resources to advance healthcare, Vazquez has developed several iPhone and Android Applications.
Vazquez lives in suburban Buffalo, New York, with his wife Toni. They have been married since 1994 and have four children, Raul III, Nadia, Nina, and Saul. Vazquez is of Puerto Rican descent, and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Contemporary medicine applies biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics, and medical technology to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and disease, typically through pharmaceuticals or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints and traction, medical devices, biologics, and ionizing radiation, amongst others.
In the medical profession, a general practitioner (GP) or family physician is a physician who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education to patients of all ages. GPs' duties are not confined to specific fields of medicine, and they have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues. They are trained to treat patients to levels of complexity that vary between countries. The term "primary care physician" is more usually used in the US. In Asian countries like India, this term has been replaced mainly by Medical Officers, Registered Medical Practitioner etc.
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SUNY Downstate Medical Center is a public medical school and hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It is the southernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and the only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care serving Brooklyn's 2.5 million residents. As of Fall 2018, it had a total student body of 1,846 and approximately 8,000 faculty and staff.
Montefiore Medical Center is a premier academic medical center and the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is located in the Norwood section of the northern Bronx. It is named for Moses Montefiore and is one of the 50 largest employers in New York. In 2020, Montefiore was ranked No. 6 New York City metropolitan area hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. Adjacent to the main hospital is the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, which serves infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21.
In the healthcare industry, pay for performance (P4P), also known as "value-based purchasing", is a payment model that offers financial incentives to physicians, hospitals, medical groups, and other healthcare providers for meeting certain performance measures. Clinical outcomes, such as longer survival, are difficult to measure, so pay for performance systems usually evaluate process quality and efficiency, such as measuring blood pressure, lowering blood pressure, or counseling patients to stop smoking. This model also penalizes health care providers for poor outcomes, medical errors, or increased costs. Integrated delivery systems where insurers and providers share in the cost are intended to help align incentives for value-based care.
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University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, also known as Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is a public medical school in the city of Buffalo, New York, at the University at Buffalo. Founded in 1846, it is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is the only medical school in Buffalo. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
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Neil S. Calman is a family physician and the president, CEO, and co-founder of the Institute for Family Health. He is the Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Board Chair of the Community Health Care Association of New York State.
Jacqueline Nwando Olayiwola is an American family physician, public health professional, author, professor, and women's empowerment leader. She is the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer of Humana and a chair and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Prior to her appointment at OSU, she served as the inaugural Chief Clinical Transformation Officer for RubiconMD, an eConsult platform that improves primary care access to specialty care for underserved patients. Olayiwola is dedicated to serving marginalized patient populations and addressing the social determinants through community and technology-based infrastructures of healthcare reform. She has published articles on the use of eConsults and telehealth to provide underserved patients with primary care treatments so that they have a low cost and efficient means of reaching specialized care. Olayiwola has founded numerous non-profits and healthcare start-ups such as GIRLTALK Inc, Inspire Health Solutions LLC, and the Minority Women Professionals are MVPs Program. She has been recognized at the national and international level for her work and efforts to educate, advocate and provide healthcare to those in need. She was named Woman of the Year by the American Telemedicine Association in 2019, and received the Public Health Innovator Award from Harvard School of Public Health in 2019, as well as being named one of America's Top Family Doctors from 2007 to 2008 by the Consumers Research Council of America.