Featured Member: Thad Padua, MD
Thad Padua, MD is a board-certified pediatrician who has been a member of the Santa Clara County Medical Association for 32 years. Membership helps him to connect with other physicians in our community, stay knowledgeable about the world of medicine, help advocate for independent physicians, and learn about health resources available for physicians.
He and his wife, Rosemarie R. Padua, MD, also a pediatrician, share a private practice together. In addition, Dr. Padua teaches the Stanford Family Medicine Residents at O’Connor Hospital and cares for children at the Pediatric Center of Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley.
Dr. Padua was born and raised in San Francisco, received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, and attended medical school at Far Eastern University in the Philippine. He completed his Pediatric Residency and Adolescent Medicine Fellowship at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He remained on faculty as an assistant professor before being recruited by O’Connor Hospital in San Jose to help start their hospital-based pediatric center in 1991. He served as the medical director for 24 years and helped develop a comprehensive pediatric primary care service for low-income families. The Pediatric Center for Life became one of the first primary care clinics to address the needs of the whole child by having health educator, social worker, nurses, and pediatricians caring for medical and psycho-social needs of families.
Dr. Padua was also the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at O’Connor Hospital before Santa Clara County purchased the hospital in 2019. In 2020, he became medical director of Pediatrics and helped establish the O’Connor Pediatric Urgent Care Center, which helps address the urgent healthcare needs of children after pediatricians’ offices close.
Dr. Padua’s dedication and commitment to the health and well-being of children has been well-demonstrated by his advocacy and past service on various community boards, including O’Connor Hospital and Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. He currently serves as chair of the Santa Clara Family Health Plan Provider Advisory Council and is board member of the Healthier Kids Foundation which helps school aged children get dental, vision, and hearing, and wellness screens.
As past president of the Philippine Medical Society of Northern California, Dr. Padua has helped lead medical missions in the Philippines. The organization has been performing annual medical missions since 1986. Dr. Padua finds volunteering to help the very poor to be truly rewarding.
He and his wife have been married for 38 years. They have two children who have followed in their footsteps as healthcare professionals: Ilyssa is a family nurse practitioner at Stanford Healthcare, and Irie is a Family Medicine physician who is completing his sports medicine fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. Thad and Rosemarie enjoy international travel, attending performing arts events, and volunteering for medical missions.
