Dr. Samantha Chau, MD

Welcome to My Home Page!

I have always had an interest in the sciences and considered graduate school for molecular biology during my studies at the University of Chicago. But before I applied for graduate school, to really determine if that was meant for me, I worked for several years at a pharmaceutical company as a research associate. I really enjoyed the research but realized that I wanted to work more closely with people rather than performing benchwork. I attended Boston University and in addition to my Master's degree in Medical Sciences, I seized the opportunity to obtain my MBA in Health Care Management. My time in Boston reaffirmed my interest in medicine and I then attended Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. My time working in a pharmaceutical company must have had a deeper impact on me than I realized because I was almost immediately drawn to anesthesiology. I went back to my hometown, New York City for my residency at New York University. The training I …received there was a wonderful experience. Once you finish your training there, you realize you can handle almost anything since we were a Level 1 trauma center at Bellevue Hospital. We also trained at two very prestigious hospitals, Tisch Hospital and the Hospital for Joint Diseases. And last but not least, we worked at Manhattan VA Hospital where we were privileged to serve our soldiers and veterans.

So you may be wondering how I decided to come out to California. I have lived all over the United States but they have all been in areas where the winters are brutal! My husband and I had a discussion and decided that if we were going to do it, this would be the best time. And here we are. The East Bay is an ideal location for me. We are close enough to San Francisco for the city girl in me but we're able to live in a home with space for my daughter to run free, something that would have been close to impossible living in Manhattan.

Although the nature of anesthesia obliges us to meet our patients on the day of surgery, I truly enjoy that time spent learning a bit about you. The perioperative time can be an anxious period but is an opportunity for me to ease any fears or concerns about anesthesia. I look forward to being a part of your care at Kaiser Permanente.