UC Merced Magazine | Volume XVIII, Issue IV

Primed to Make a Difference Medical Education Collaboration SJV PRIME+ LV D %ROG 6WHS 8& &DPSXV /HDGHUV 6D\b

By Jody Murray, UC Merced, and Barbara Anderson, UCSF Fresno

A multi-campus UC collaboration aspires to jumpstart health care in the heart of California. “From the Valley and for the Valley,” Margo Vener, M.D., said in describing the program that recruits Central Valley high school students who express commitments to practice in the region. e students follow a pathway that starts with undergraduate medical education at UC Merced and continues through the UC San Francisco School of Medicine with clinical work at the UCSF Fresno campus. Vener leads the bachelor’s of science-to-M.D. (B.S.-to-M.D.) pathway as UCSF assistant dean and UC Merced director of undergraduate medical education. SJV PRIME+ includes a four-year baccalaureate component, leading into the UCSF Doctor of Medicine curriculum. All elements of the program, o ered through UC Merced and UCSF Fresno, focus on preparing a physician workforce to address communities’ unmet health and health care needs in the Valley. e rst B.S.-to-M.D. cohort of 15 students began instruction at UC Merced this fall. Due to numerous socio-economic and cultural pressures, access to health care is a struggle in the Valley. e region

has 130 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 191 per 100,000 in all of California, according to a 2020 study by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. e study also looked at what it called Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Examples of a HPSA include low-income communities, homeless populations and groups of migrant farmworkers. In California, 28% of the population lives in an HPSA. In the Valley, the number soars to 92%. “We have huge health disparities, especially when you start looking at vulnerable communities, rural communities, communities of color,” said Dr. Kenny Banh, assistant dean for undergraduate medical education at UCSF Fresno. “Many people must be transferred out of the region, or they won’t receive care at all.” We talked to six leaders from the collaborating UC campuses about SJV PRIME+, about UC Merced’s expanded role in pre-medical education, and about the future of Valley health care and medical training. Here’s what we heard:

Chancellor Muñoz and Rufus the Bobcat with the first cohort of SJV PRIME+ students.

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