No Healthcare Worker Can Do It Alone

No Healthcare Worker Can Do It Alone: Improving Health Systems Across California

Milo Dover | Physician | Inland Empire, California, USA | 2025 California HEAL Fellow

Programs that facilitate interprofessional connections and collaborations are shown to improve attitudes towards team-based care, which can contribute to improving outcomes for patients.

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Different professions represented across our California HEAL Fellows

Growing up in California’s underserved high desert, Dr. Milo Dover saw firsthand how easy it was for families like his to fall through the cracks of a fragmented healthcare system. His family was offered resources, like food assistance and veteran benefits, but without guidance on how to navigate them all, often leaving him wondering, “why didn’t we know about this sooner?”

Through the patients he cared for in medical school in the Inland Empire, Milo learned that his family was one of many across California that lacked access to resources to meet their basic needs. As a Spanish speaker with similar experiences to the underserved patients he cared for, Milo understood the barriers they faced, not just in reaching care but in navigating the systems around it. He set out to close those gaps, but learned no doctor can do it alone.

At HEAL, Milo found his village, so he didn’t have to.

Through the California HEAL Program, he continues his work in the Inland Empire, collaborating closely with community health workers, enhanced care managers, and researchers while learning alongside a global community of healthcare workers tackling similar challenges. Combined with HEAL’s systems-thinking training and mentorship, he is gaining a clearer understanding of how to connect patients to the full range of care they need.Just halfway through the fellowship, that growth is already changing outcomes.When one of Milo’s unhoused patients struggled to manage her diabetes, he worked with his local HEAL Co-Fellows to rethink her care. Instead of defaulting to standard services for diabetes, they identified that her most urgent needs were mental health support and stable housing. With those in place, her health had already begun to improve, putting long-term stability within reach.

80%

Of California HEAL Fellows speak Spanish

100%

Of California HEAL Fellows are from California

With a better understanding of how the Inland Empire’s health system fits together and where it falls short, the HEAL Fellowship gave Milo the advocacy framework to make improvements in care beyond the individual patient level. He’s already advocating to better equip community health workers to improve access to care for rural Californians. In particular, he’s prepared discussions with the Riverside University Health System regarding the scope of care of these under-recognized health workers so their work can be properly supported. Additionally, he has given lectures to medical students and residents on the value of advocacy and what it can look like in practice.

Looking ahead, Milo plans to carry these lessons and connections from HEAL forward to improve access to quality care across more Inland Empire communities. Milo became a doctor to fill a gap his community felt, and now he wants to improve the systems that left the doctors before him too burned out to fill it themselves.