Learn About Our Mission and History
The Brown & Toland story
Inspired by two San Francisco health pioneers, Drs. Charlotte Blake Brown and Hugh Huger Toland, we are a diverse community of doctors and health care professionals bound together by a single vision: to partner with patients to deliver the best care possible.
A tradition of medical innovation
In the nineteenth century, Dr. Charlotte Amanda Blake Brown founded Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, along with eight prominent physicians. The first hospital run by women for women, Children’s Hospital later became California Pacific Medical Center.
Dr. Hugh Huger Toland arrived in California during the Gold Rush, quickly becoming one of San Francisco’s leading physicians. He established the Toland Medical College in 1864, which became the first viable medical school in San Francisco. The school was transferred as a gift to the University of California in 1873.
Shaping the future of health
Guided by the wisdom of the past and the possibility of the future, our history is punctuated by several key “firsts”:
- We were one of the first medical groups in the nation to deploy integrated electronic health records in the private practice setting.
- We were named a Medicare Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and have since become a leader in the development of ACOs across the Bay Area.
Our mission to serve our doctors guides us to create services and programs that have a positive impact on health — for our patients and our communities and for the doctors who care for them.
