About Dr. Anahi M. Ortiz

Dr. Anahi Ortiz was born in New York, New York. She graduated from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, a six year BS/MD program, at City College of New York. She then received her medical degree from Downstate Medical College in Brooklyn. Dr. Ortiz decided on pediatrics as her focus and did her residency at St. Luke’s - Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan.

After residency, her career has focused on providing care to the underserved communities of New York City and eventually those in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Ortiz moved to the central Ohio area in 1996 where she has worked as a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Westside Community Health Center, and North Community Counseling. She has always been a proponent of volunteering in the community and currently volunteers at Helping Hands Free Clinic as well as volunteering internationally with Timmy Global Health Care.

Dr. Ortiz was appointed to the office of Franklin County Coroner in November of 2014. Since then she has worked towards streamlining the process for more timely completion of death certificates, has had several forms professionally interpreted for families of decedents whose primary language is not English, and is working on educating the medical community on completing death certificates. In addition, Dr. Ortiz is currently on the Franklin County Suicide Workgroup, which is looking at suicide in Franklin County and attempting to decrease the rate of suicide here. In March of 2015 Dr. Ortiz instituted the Franklin County Drug Overdose Initiative. This group meets monthly to look at the rising rate of drug use and deaths in Franklin County (or Central Ohio) and how we can intervene. In a short period of time, several members of the group have developed concrete plans to create programs which will decrease the number of deaths from overdoses.

Dr. Anahi Ortiz has almost 30 years experience in working with high risk communities in the medical field. She brings this experience and knowledge to the office of Coroner where she will be a voice for those who die of violent means and help improve the lives of our community.