San Diego gastroenterologist Daniel “Stony” Anderson, M.D., has been named the 2017 recipient of the California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation Adarsh S. Mahal, M.D., Access to Health Care and Disparities Award. This award honors an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution toward improving access to health care or reducing health care disparities in California.

Dr. Anderson has been a champion for improving colorectal cancer screening and diagnostics among communities of color in San Diego County and throughout the state for more than 10 years.

In 2008, he helped the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation launch its flagship program, Project Access San Diego, by initiating “Super Saturdays” at Kaiser Permanente, modeled after Operation Access San Francisco. These “Super Saturdays” provide low-income and uninsured patients with free health care. So far, Kaiser’s Super Saturdays have provided 559 patients with improved health through 250 outpatient surgical procedures and 309 diagnostic colonoscopies and flex sigmoidoscopies.

Dr. Anderson has been an ardent supporter of improving the screening rates of low-income patients utilizing San Diego community clinics for primary care, helping to raise screening rates from 20 percent in 2013 to 41.2 percent in 2015, well above the national rate of 38.5 percent.

Dr. Anderson also negotiated discounted pricing for the fecal immunochemical tests used by the community clinics for effective and cost-efficient colorectal cancer screening.

Dr. Anderson has served as chair of the California Colorectal Cancer Coalition since 2006, advocating for statewide legislation to improve access for colorectal cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment for uninsured patients, on par with breast and prostate cancer.

Dr. Anderson has been with Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG) in San Diego since 1984 and currently serves on the SCPMG Board of Directors. He is also a member of an SCPMG Colon Cancer Screening Task Force that has doubled the number of colonoscopies done in SCPMG since 2004 using a comprehensive outreach program.

The award will be presented at the CMA Foundation’s President’s Reception and Awards Gala on October 21, 2017, in Anaheim.