UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue V

A rendering of the planned Medical Education Building shows how it fits with existing campus architecture.

We feel confident that every student we take into this program has the capability to do the work and become a great doctor. — Dr. Margo Vener

Medical Education at UC Merced is in the Process of ‘Building the Middle’

e San Joaquin Valley PRIME Plus Program — SJV PRIME+, familiarly known as the “B.S. to M.D.” pathway — is an academic partnership with UCSF and UCSF-Fresno. It o ers a cohort of Central Valley students preferred admission to medical school, assuming they hit all their academic marks. Dr. Margo Vener, UC Merced director of medical education, noted that the second cohort of 15 students has been admitted for fall 2024, following the inaugural cohort that just completed the rst year of classes. For four years, students take an intensive undergraduate pre-med course and earn their baccalaureate of science (B.S.) degree at UC Merced. A er graduation, students stay at UC Merced to complete their rst 1 ½ years of medical school. For their clinical years, medical students transition to UCSF Fresno for their nal 2 ½ years at the Fresno campus. Because UC Merced and UCSF-Fresno are regional medical campuses of UCSF, when students graduate, they will receive their M.D.s from UCSF but will have earned their entire B.S. and M.D. degrees in the Valley, staying close and connected to the communities they hope to serve.

e B.S. program is established, and UCSF has been o ering medical education since 1864. What UC Merced is developing is that “middle” — the year and a half of doctor training that will be conducted in the campus’s new Medical

Education Building. Rigorous Training

Vener explained that in the UCSF medical curriculum known as “Foundations 1,” rst- and second-year medical students attend classes, study in labs such as anatomy and microbiology, engage with scienti c questions, and gain core doctoring skills through patient simulation while at UC Merced. In “Foundations 2” and “Career Launch,” third and fourth-year students will do clinical rotations and engage in direct patient care through the Fresno campus. UC Merced is on track to deliver Foundations 1 by fall 2027. To do so, Vener is overseeing the hiring of faculty who can deliver the rigorous education required. “ ese will be teaching faculty in foundational science, such as biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, immunology, population health and more,” she said. “We are in the middle of that hiring process, hoping to send out o ers to start July 1.”

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