Michele Lamantia, MD

Born in San Diego California and raised in the small town of Ocean Beach she always appreciated the community. She went to Point Loma High School and went on to get her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry at UC, San Diego La Jolla. Always with a passion for medicine and love for community, she felt the call to medicine as a vocation of service she wanted to pursue and took the extra pre-med courses needed to apply to medical school. She was accepted at her Alma Mater UCSD and completed her Medical Degree and then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Scripps Mercy San Diego. Dr. Lamantia then went to serve in a small community practice in Lakeside, California with Dr. JanSturkow and enjoyed the flexibility of a clinic practice combined with her hospital skills maintaining privileges at Sharp Grossmont Hospital.

With the advent of “hospitalist” programs many hospitals found it more cost effective to retain their own Internal Medicine staff and Dr. Lamantia moved onto a position with Kaiser Permanente at their Clairmont facility with 2800 patients on her panel to manage. Upon retiring from Kaiser in 2008 Dr. Lamantia sought a part-time position and sought to return to the community medicine she had enjoyed out of training.

Working with a culturally diverse and underserved population she found she was able to enjoy the rewards of service to her community and has stayed with SYHealth now for 13 years. She currently serves as the Director of the SYHealth Chronic Pain Program, Chief of Internal Medicine, and Internal Medicine Program Director.