In addition to her role as professor of medicine, Julieta Gabiola, MD, is founder and CEO of the ABCs for Global Health foundation. On June 18, the organization is hosting a fun run in the Phillipines (San Fernando, Pampanga) and looking for interested sponsors and runners. Funds from the event help support the ABCs for Global Health mobile clinic.

The clinic, a 30-foot bus with two exam rooms, travels three days a week, visits 10 communities (barangays) in Pampanga and serves about 20,000 individuals. Health services provided include prevention, education and research. Operational cost of the mobile clinic is $50,000 per year. It goes mainly (70 percent) to salaries of the personnel for the bus (doctors, nurses, coordinator and driver) and also (30 percent) to medications, supplies and labs. This year, June 7-30, Gabiola is taking students and volunteers to Pampanga for immersion in global health study and practice. 

The mission of ABCs for Global Health is to improve chronic disease management and outcomes in Filipinos in the Philippines and in the United States. Gabiola collaborates with hospitals and universities in the Philippines to mitigate disparities in health care and improve health care access. The ABCs stand for Advocacy for better public policies, Betterment of individuals’ health and wellbeing and Commitment to creating sustainable, community based programs.

Gabiola founded ABCs for Global Health in 2009. She serves on the board of directors for the National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians (NCAPIP). In 2013, she was named a Top 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World by the Filipina Women’s Network, and in 2011 she received a humanitarian and volunteerism award from the American College of Physicians. Gabiola is a senior fellow with the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health. She completed both internship and residency at Stanford after graduating from Rush University Medical College in Chicago.