Carrying the Torch: HELIOS Students and the Next Chapter of Group Medical Visits at UCI

by Sidra Ali, Bryan Chavez, and John Billimek

Members of the 2019 Healthy Cooking class team, including Drs. David Kilgore and Shea Suskin, with Health Scholars and future HELIOS members and medical students Alejandra Hurtado (UCI PRIME-LC) and Denice Segovia (UCSF PRIME-US)

At the UCI Family Health Centers (FHCs) in Santa Ana and Anaheim, Group Medical Visits (GMVs) have long offered a different approach to care—one that brings patients together to learn, reflect, and support each other while managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Instead of a traditional one-on-one visit, patients participate in shared sessions that combine education, discussion, and brief individual care, creating accountability and connection that extend beyond the clinic.

This model has deep roots. GMVs at the Santa Ana clinic date back nearly two decades, with diabetes group visits beginning around 2006. When Dr. David Kilgore, a family physician and longtime leader in group-based care and lifestyle medicine, joined UCI in 2008, he became a key driver of expanding and sustaining these programs over time.

Over the next decade, leaders like Drs. Kilgore, Elana Craemer, Shea Suskin, Emily Dow and Nurse Practitioner Vanessa Rodriguez helped GMVs grow into a broader ecosystem of shared care. In the late 2010s, offerings included multiple diabetes groups at the Santa Ana and Anaheim sites, a weight management program, healthy cooking classes, a Down Syndrome group visit, and mindfulness-based stress reduction sessions, alongside community activities like yoga and Zumba.

“Knowledge alone isn’t enough—patients also need confidence, skills, motivation, and support,” says Dr. Kilgore. “Sometimes patients listen more closely to each other than to clinicians.”

Building the Model: Students as Part of the Care Team

A defining feature of GMVs at UCI has been the integration of students into care delivery. From 2014 to 2019, the Health Scholars Program (HSP), led by Dr. Marco Angulo and Anabel Arroyo, embedded student Health Navigators directly into GMVs at the Santa Ana clinic.

These students—almost all first-generation college students and future clinicians—helped lead education sessions, support patient engagement, and reinforce key skills between visits. That model of immersive, applied clinical experiences in the community became a major inspiration for HELIOS.

Today, HELIOS builds directly on that foundation—continuing the tradition of integrating students into FQHC-based care while expanding opportunities for mentorship, research, and leadership. The HSP model itself continues through AltaMed Health Services as the AltaMed Scholars Program.

Dr. Angulo reflects on the model’s enduring value: “Group visits let patients teach each other, and that’s gold.” Just as importantly, they create a training ground for future clinicians to understand community-centered care in practice.

Expanding What Care Could Look Like

A key milestone in the evolution of GMVs came in July 2019 with the opening of the Lois Eisenberg Teaching Kitchen at the Santa Ana clinic—an effort shaped by Dr. Kilgore’s leadership and his vision for integrating lifestyle medicine into primary care.

As described by the UCI Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute:

“Amid the aroma of garlic, onion and myriad spices, UCI Health officially opened a gleaming new teaching kitchen at its bustling Family Health Center in Santa Ana. The nearly 1,100-square-foot, state-of-the-art Lois Eisenberg Teaching Kitchen is used for group cooking sessions for patients and a host of nutritional education programs for the surrounding community.”

The Teaching Kitchen expanded GMVs to include hands-on nutrition and cooking education—bringing patients and care teams together around shared, practical experiences.

This work is supported by a broader ecosystem of programs at UCI, including collaborations with the UCI Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, the HEAL-IM program, the PRIME-LC and Lifestyle Medicine residency tracks in Family Medicine, the UCI School of Medicine PRIME programs and Culinary Medicine elective, and community partners like MPNA-GREEN, CRECE Urban Farms and Project FoodBox.

From HSP to HELIOS: A Continuous Pipeline

The connection between HSP and HELIOS is most visible in the students themselves—many of whom have participated in both programs and carried forward the same community-centered approach to care.

America Rojas, a UCSD medical student today, who in her pre-med years supported GMVs first as a Health Scholar and later as a HELIOS member, reflects:

“Leading weight management groups and supporting cooking sessions showed me that behavior change isn’t about telling patients what to do—it’s about walking alongside them as they build confidence and community.”

Eric Gonzalez, a Health Scholar and HELIOS alumnus who has returned to volunteer with the GMVs, recalls:

“I saw patients become teachers for each other—sharing what worked, encouraging one another. That experience changed how I think about care. It’s not one-directional, it’s shared.”

Denice Segovia, who helped launch the first Healthy Cooking classes at the Teaching Kitchen in 2019 with HSP, and later joined HELIOS on the way to medical school at UCSF, says:

“There was something powerful about learning side-by-side with patients—turning nutrition into something hands-on, cultural, and real.”

HELIOS trainees have also helped extend the GMV model into new programs. Brett Cervantes—a HELIOS student, later staff member, and HSP alum about to begin his Family Medicine residency at UCSF—and Karina Fing Castro, an HSP alum and former HELIOS staff member now in med school at UCLA PRIME-LA, brought invaluable GMV experience to the development of Mi Propio Camino, an NIH-funded hypertension group education program created by Drs. Kilgore and John Billimek. Brett and Karina’s firsthand understanding of how groups actually work—the flow of sessions, the role of peer support, and the practical details that make patients feel welcome—helped turn the idea from a research concept into a real program.

Brett reflects:

“GMVs showed me that engagement and interaction are just as important as the content we teach. We had to be creative—using discussion, activities, visuals, and peer sharing—to make sessions interesting and meaningful for the different ways patients like to learn about their health and how their bodies work. We brought that perspective into building Mi Propio Camino.”

HELIOS in the Current Chapter

Following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, GMVs returned in 2022-2023, entering a new phase of growth under the leadership of Drs. Shipra Bansal, Nafiseh Khodaparast and now Dr. Shane Jones. HELIOS students are once again playing a central role.

Jeffrey Garcia, currently a UCSD medical student who in his pre-med years as a HELIOS student and UC3P PRIME Fellow supported the relaunch of Diabetes GMVs in Anaheim, reflects:

“When care is welcoming and community-based, patients show up differently. You can feel the difference in the room.”

Current HELIOS students and future physicians Laura Renero and Angyelisa Hernandez, now supporting GMVs in Santa Ana, share:

“Being part of these visits reminds us why we’re here. You see the relationships, the trust, and the progress patients make together.”

Under the leadership of Dr. Shane Jones, the most recent Diabetes GMV cohort in Santa Ana (2025–2026) reflects this integration of care and training:

“You can see patients becoming more confident over time—not just in managing their diabetes, but in supporting each other. That group dynamic is what makes GMVs work, and having HELIOS students involved strengthens that environment.”

These efforts are supported by longstanding leadership at the FHCs, including Interim Executive Director Leanne Funada, former Executive Director Dr. Jose Mayorga, and Interim Medical Director Dr. Mateo Leveroni, as well as the UCI–OC Alliance Diabetes Initiative, launched in 2024, with leadership from UCI Foundation Trustee Dean Yoost and Dr. Alpesh Amin.

From their beginnings in the 2000s, through expansion in the 2010s, and renewal in the mid-2020s, GMVs at the UCI Family Health Centers continue to evolve.

For HELIOS students, being part of this work is more than a training opportunity—it is a chance to contribute to a long-standing model of care built on listening, shared learning, and community—and to help carry that tradition forward into its next chapter.