Francesca J. Torriani, MD, is an infectious disease specialist who sees patients with cancers and/or lowered immune systems who may have an infectious complication during their hospital stay. She earned her medical degree from the University Medical School in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Torriani is the UC San Diego Health Infection Prevention and Clinical Epidemiology's Medical Program Director, serving as the health care epidemiologist for all hospitals within UC San Diego Health. She has worked collaboratively across disciplines and with multidisciplinary clinical health care teams to improve and standardize processes towards the goal of reaching zero avoidable health care-associated infections. This continuous work has contributed to UC San Diego Health being rated first in the region and among the top ten institutions in the nation, rated for the highest safety and quality of care. Dr. Torriani led UC San Diego Health through the creation of an Ebola unit at the Hillcrest campus, through the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, a large hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County in 2016-2017, and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic from 2020 to 2023.