Dr. Chris Searles does house calls one better. He calls on communities. As co-director of the UCSD Combined Family Medicine & Psychiatry Residency Program, Searles goes out in the field with the mobile medical unit or to St. Vincent de Paul Family Health Center and Clinic, or Hoover and Southwest high schools or the Scripps Family Medicine Residency program in Chula Vista. Searles’ clinical practice is devoted to the primary care of underserved communities.

A native San Diegan, Searles, 38, earned his undergraduate degree at UCSD — in writing — and his medical degree from UC Davis. Now he is an assistant clinical professor at UCSD. His specialty is behavioral medicine; his passion, to find creative ways to deal with preventable disease and shore up the health disparities that exist for families below the poverty line. He founded RecreationRx.org, a statewide initiative that partners physicians with recreational organizations. Searles’ main prescription for preventing obesity: exercise. And his ongoing mission is to find ways to break down the barriers — primarily financial — to exercise.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Searles also is a Chula Vista parks and recreation commissioner and immediate past chair of the Chula Vista city ethics board.