About Dr. Joseph Caperna

Dr. Joseph Caperna

Dr. Joseph Caperna was born and raised in Ohio. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Kenyon College in 1984. He then graduated from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH) in 1990. He has practiced medicine since that time, completing Internal Medicine residency training at the UCSD Medical Center in 1993. He is board certified in Internal Medicine. In 1994, he was awarded a master’s degree (MPH) in public health from UC Berkeley. He completed a three year fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at UCSD 1995-98. He was a full time faculty member at UCSD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, from 1998 to early 2013.

In 1998, he received the UCSD Humanitarian Award for helping to start a blood bank in a rural area of Peru, called Huaraz. In 2007, he received the UCSD Diversity Award, recognizing his contributions to underserved populations. In 2011, he received the Kenyon College Humanitarian Award for volunteer work in Africa and Peru. In 2012, he was awarded the San Diego County Brad Truax Award for Community Service in the area of HIV care and treatment. He is also an American Academy of HIV Medicine Specialist, passing the credentialing examination every two years since 2006. He has been Board Certified in Internal Medicine since 1993.