COMMUNITY HEALTH ACTIVISM
Dr. Calderón continued to serve indigent communities in NYC during his ensuing five years in medical practice in the Bronx and Brooklyn, NY. During this time a high portion of his patients were underinsured or uninsured, and he decided not to bill uninsured or collected co-payments from underinsured patients because it was known that to do so would dissuade them from returning for follow-up. As a result, he never earned more than $43, 000 as a family doctor. Then to his colleague’s dismay, Dr. Calderón entered a second residency training program in neurology at Bellevue Hospital Medical Center, NY; his second tour of duty. It is rare for physicians to leave practice and return to the three year rigors of
on-call schedules as an intern and resident at an underfunded, understaffed, and undersupplied medical center.
Toward the end of his residency in neurology at Bellevue Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Calderón understood that research was needed to determine the underpinnings of disparately poor health of communities living in poverty.
He then accepted an invitation to conduct research at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) in Watts, South Central Los Angeles. CDU was the only historically Black and Hispanic Serving medical school west of the Mississippi River and was affiliated with Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital, where he took the position of Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology; his third tour of duty.
Dr. Calderón devoted the next 25 years to academic medicine and engaged in public health related research and teaching, that addressed disparities in the health status and healthcare access affecting communities living in poverty, regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin. While at CDU, Dr. Calderón helped to develop and went on to be Director of the Drew University Center for Cross-cultural Epidemiologic Studies (DUCES).