Barbara Tobias, MD
Not everyone has access to health care. She’s changing that.
Barbara Tobias, MD, Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Robert & Myfanwy Smith Endowed Chair of Family Medicine, is a champion of primary care both locally and nationally. While Tobias still sees patients, the majority of her time is spent improving primary care through policy and research initiatives.
“Family medicine is the broadest 
and most specific medical training for a clinician, so to be able to provide primary care to individuals regardless of age, gender or socioeconomic status feels like the most valuable skill I could have.”
Tobias’ desire to make an impact on the community is clear. In addition to her roles at UC College of Medicine, Tobias is also the medical director of the The Health Collaborative, a local organization that supports all of the hospital systems in the Greater Cincinnati area to improve healthcare and lower costs for the community. The Collaborative plays an important role, functioning as a neutral entity to help multiple hospital systems come together and align on shared goals.
“All of my different worlds inform each other. I think I'm a better teacher because I'm working on these important demonstration projects that are going to shape medicine in the next decade and I think that by seeing patients and by teaching students I can be a better advisor to these projects around policy going forward.”
As a professor at UC College of Medicine, Tobias values the opportunity to teach and mentor the next generation of doctors. She loves working with her medical students, and sees it as another opportunity to help those in her community.
“Nothing is more gratifying than being able to give something to someone else,” said Tobias. “I think we're not just responsible for the patients in our exam room, but we're stewards of health care resources for our community and we have a responsibility to put forth our community’s health and our region’s health. I think that whatever our footprint is we have to provide our skills and talents as often as we can.”
