• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Fresno is Key for Medical School: UC Merced Hopes to Build a Program to Serve the Valley.

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Denny Boyles, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Jun. 28--A partnership of three University of California campuses could help a proposed medical school in Merced become a reality.

UC Merced officials cited population increases and a shortage of qualified medical professionals earlier this month when they submitted their medical education program proposal to the president of the University of California system. Their plan is to partner with existing medical schools at UC Davis and UC San Francisco to build a program that would help every city in the Valley, not just Merced.

Maria Pallavicini, dean of the college of natural science at UC Merced, said Fresno would be the first city to benefit from the new school.

"Fresno is key for us, because of the existing medical training done at the UCSF Fresno campus," Pallavicini said. "Right now, there is an almost complete program for the third and fourth years of medical school in place at UCSF Fresno. Our plan is to build up that existing program and at the same time create the first two years of medical school on our campus in Merced."

Building up the existing program in Fresno would offer immediate benefits, said Dr. Joan Voris, associate dean of the UCSF-Fresno medical education program.

"First of all, we would have more students," Voris said. "Having a medical school in the area would also increase the number of graduates who choose to stay. Usually 30% of our residents stay in the area where they train. Plus, offering more training in some highly needed subspecialty areas could increase that number up to 50%."

Once the program is running at full strength in Fresno, Pallavicini said, it could be expanded to other Valley cities, such as Modesto. More than $1.5 million in grants already has been secured for a potential UC Merced medical education program. A similar program at UC Riverside has more than $15 million. Pallavicini said she isn't concerned that the Riverside effort is further along in terms of fundraising.

"They have more money because they started earlier than we did," Pallavicini said. "The reality is that there is a clear need for medical education both in the Inland Empire [in Southern California] which Riverside serves, and in the Central Valley."

If the UC Merced proposal is approved, the first medical students will start classes at the campus within 10 years. That first class is expected to be 32 students, with plans for up to 100 students yearly once the program is fully operational.

The reporter can be reached at dboyles@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6659.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: The Fresno Bee

More News in this Category