San Francisco ob-gyn Pratima Gupta, M.D., was selected as the 2017 recipient of the California Medical Association (CMA) Compassionate Service Award, which honors a CMA member physician who best illustrates the association’s commitment to community and charity care. The award was announced at the CMA Foundation’s 21st annual President’s Reception and Awards Gala, during the CMA House of Delegates last weekend in Anaheim.

Throughout Dr. Gupta’s medical career, she has shown an unwavering commitment to public health and community service. She spent a research year during medical school in Quito, Ecuador. During that year, she founded and staffed a free clinic for transgender health care. From 2006 to 2014, she travelled internationally as a volunteer, providing training and education to doctors and health care providers in Peru, India, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, Nicaragua and South Sudan. In 2013, she participated on a disaster relief team sent to typhoon-stricken Tacloban, Philippines.

Her volunteer work in California is equally impressive. Since 2005, she has volunteered her time to provide care to female, transgender and male sex workers at St. James Infirmary in San Francisco, where she is currently the volunteer medical director. 

Dr. Gupta is a fierce proponent of patient reproductive rights, and is known for encouraging other physicians in California and throughout the United States to become advocates for their patients, public health and the practice of medicine.