Takeda Selected Physician of Year

Dr. Daniel Takeda, a clinical instructor at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, has been named 1997 physician of the year by the California Academy of Family Physicians.

Takeda, who lives and teaches in Northridge, also has a private practice in Simi Valley. He will be honored Friday at the CAFP’s annual scientific assembly in San Francisco. Each year the award is given to a California physician who exhibits the finest characteristics in the specialty of family practice.

“Receiving this honor is a wonderful feeling; it really was a big surprise,” Takeda said. “I love practicing medicine and I feel a huge responsibility to be an example of what family medicine is all about.”

At the Northridge Medical Center, Takeda teaches maternity care in the shared-care prenatal program and also oversees a tattoo-removal clinic that allows former gang members to erase their gang markings.

In 1986, the 38-year-old UCLA Medical School graduate was named the outstanding graduating resident at Northridge, and in 1991 he was given the residency program’s outstanding faculty award.

In addition to his work at the medical center and in his private practice, Takeda is chief of staff at Simi Valley Hospital and Health Care Services, where he also serves as chairman of the bioethics committee.

“Dr. Takeda is an outstanding choice for family physician of the year,” said Dr. Stephen Brunton, president of CAFP. “His dedication to his patients, students, colleagues and community is striking. His practice is emblematic of the ideals of compassion, continuity and comprehensiveness of care embodied by family medicine.”

Dr. Pamela Davis, a clinical instructor at the medical center, who nominated Takeda for the award, said, “Dr. Takeda is superb combination of all the things that make a great family physician.

“He uses all the modern technology but he still keeps that old-fashioned warm and personal approach to medicine.”