Hippocrates Circle is a Southern California Kaiser Permanente program designed to motivate under-represented students towards careers as doctors.  This community outreach was founded in 2000 at the San Diego Medical Center by Dr. Ricardo Sistos, Maria E. Torres and Laarni A. Fontillas.

The program included four interactive activities:

1. an opportunity for students and physicians to share personal experiences and discuss challenges to achieving a medical career,
2. a tour of Kaiser Permanente medical facilities and experience a day in the life of a physician,
3. a tour of a medical school campus, and
4. a graduation ceremony with the students, their families, and mentoring physicians.

Today, Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Region has identified this program as a significant community benefit that should extend throughout all of the medical centers, and in 2004, the Hippocrates Circle Program was introduced in Orange County.