Horacio Murillo, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized cardiothoracic radiologist, educator, and physician–scientist whose career spans academic medicine, rural healthcare delivery, and health policy. He is the Founder and President of the Emundi Foundation and Chair of its Board of Directors, leading the creation of a new, community rooted, nonprofit, independent MD granting medical school and innovation platform designed to transform healthcare access in California’s North State. Throughout his career, Dr. Murillo has worked at the intersection of innovation and access—bridging high technology imaging and cutting edge medicine with the everyday realities facing rural and underserved communities and translating vision into action where it is needed most.

Raised in a rural environment, Dr. Murillo learned early that geography can quietly become destiny—shaping access to specialists, the timeliness of diagnoses, and the range of available options. That lived experience instilled not only empathy, but a lasting sense of responsibility. It shaped a simple, enduring purpose: to bring timely, high quality healthcare to the people and places that need it most. His work is informed by more than two decades of health policy experience, including service with The National Academies, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Congressional Fellow supporting the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). This perspective continues to guide his focus on high value care, evidence based practice, and sustainable solutions to persistent workforce and access gaps.

In Northern California, Dr. Murillo has been active in both private and academic practice, helping build advanced cardiovascular imaging services and prevention focused programs that meet patients where they are. He has developed comprehensive CT and MRI imaging capabilities spanning congenital heart disease from neonates to adults, acquired cardiovascular conditions, and structural heart disease—enabling care teams to plan and deliver cutting edge, minimally invasive diagnostic and interventional procedures. These efforts have improved outcomes while reducing the need for patients to travel far from home. The low dose CT lung cancer screening programs he developed benefit thousands of patients each year across the Sacramento Sierra region and the North State. He frequently travels long distances—often hundreds of miles in a week—to deliver specialized imaging and interventional procedures, reflecting his belief that access to excellence should not depend on zip code.

Dr. Murillo serves on the adjunct clinical faculty in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he has been recognized for teaching, mentorship, and his commitment to developing the next generation of physician leaders. He also practices at Enloe Health in Chico, California, and, as Vice Chair of Radiology, helps lead initiatives that strengthen cancer care delivery, imaging quality, and access across a broad rural region.

A graduate of the Mayo Clinic’s combined MD–PhD program and board certified by the American Board of Radiology, Dr. Murillo is now channeling a lifetime of clinical, educational, and policy experience into a single ambition: to grow our own physicians in the North State—trained with excellence, grounded in equity, and committed to lasting impact where the need is greatest.

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