On Jan. 24, AL DÍA recognized Dr. Matilde Irigoyen with one of the four Top Doctor awards given out that evening.

Irigoyen works “at the interface between primary care medicine and public health,” and has spent decades working to improve healthcare for children and families in underserved, urban communities as a researcher, academic general pediatrician, and primary care physician.

Her journey in medicine began when she was growing up in her birth country of Argentina, and found herself drawn to the “mix of science and service” that medicine offered.

After receiving her medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires, and completing a residency program at the Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, Irigoyen moved to the U.S. for a second residency in pediatrics at Mount Sinai College of Medicine in New York City. She did another fellowship in general pediatrics there, after which she went to work in the Columbia University health system as the Chief of General Pediatrics, and as a professor of both pediatrics and public health.

She has now been working in Philadelphia for 12 years as chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Einstein Healthcare Network.

Irigoyen decided to take on her current position at Einstein Healthcare because of her dedication to connecting with and serving urban, underserved communities — a mission, Irigoyen told AL DÍA after the award ceremony, that Einstein has focused on for more than 150 years in serving the communities of North Philadelphia.

“Einstein has a very strong mission to the community, of service to the community, and also to medical education,” Irigoyen said.   

The physician has also contributed significantly to research about pediatrics and adolescent medicine, including authoring papers about obesity among low-income young children, one to five years old, in New York City, swaddling and infant sleeping practices, exposure and use of digital devices among young children, and more.

She noted that “being bilingual [and] bicultural helps inform the way you practice medicine,” - especially in cities like Philadelphia, where Latinos make up 15 percent of the population.

Though she has not necessarily seen an increase in the number of Latino physicians and doctors in the U.S. so far, Irigoyen noted that the current class of 30 trainees working at Einstein included six Latinos.

“They’re all representing different countries in Latin America, but that certainly adds to the diversity,” said Irigoyen, adding, “Latino patients prefer Latino doctors all the time, so they have a great patient following.”

Irigoyen said that her position as an academic general pediatrician and chair of the department means that she spends most of her time mentoring residents, doing research that is applicable to highlight issues, trying out programs, and teaching the pediatrics residents. She also serves in an administrative role, running programs.

Ultimately, while admitting that having more Latino doctors is important, Irigoyen sees access to universal healthcare and universal education as being one of the most important steps in achieving health equity in Philadelphia, and the United States as a whole. As of now, children who are born in Philadelphia and are American citizens are entitled to health insurance; those who are foreign-born, and “definitely those who are undocumented,” said Irigoyen, “have a very hard time getting healthcare.”

Philadelphia, Irigoyen noted, doesn’t report to immigration officials anything about families’ immigration statuses if parents take their children to healthcare services or enroll them in schools, but parents who are undocumented often fear that if they do engage with systems or services, they could be deported.

“Preventive care is critical to lead a healthy life, and we have to provide insurance and universal coverage for everybody,” she said. “Health care is cumbersome in Philadelphia and in the States.”

Access to education is also significant, Irigoyen said, because if children aren’t able to attend pre-K and kindergarten, “they don’t develop fully, and they don’t achieve adequate literacy and preparation for school.”

The key, Irigoyen said, is to create a “continuum of care, continuum of education, to make sure children can better achieve their potential.”

Some of the other programs at Einstein that Irigoyen highlighted as efforts to serve the community include a refugee clinic, which partners with a refugee resettlement agency in North Philadelphia; an intimate partner violence prevention program; and the Centering Program, designed by the Centering Institute and run in both Spanish and English, which creates cohorts for mothers focused on pre-natal care, as well as cohorts for parents and newborns that are designed to carry the family through the first two years of the child’s life by providing support from physicians and providers, and a space for group discussion.

“We really emphasize what we call positive parenting,” Irigoyen said. “So these are communities that are very stressed, you know, by poverty and incarceration, and food insecurity, and coming together in a group is very empowering, and they learn from each other.”

Irigoyen was one of the four Top Doctor honorees chosen from among 30 physicians nominated by local health institutions.

Out of that pool of nominees, the members of the Advisory Board, chaired by the Dean of the Drexel School of Medicine, Dr. Daniel Schidlow, made their final selections as part of an hour-long process on Jan. 17.

The advisory board for this #ALDÍALive event was powered by the presence of distinguished professionals like Dr. Ivan Lugo, the former CEO of the Hispanic Dental Association; and Dr. Natalia Ortiz-Torrent, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.