California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 1

Introduced by Assembly Member Medina

December 3, 2012

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 1—Relative to the University of California.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 1, as introduced, Medina. University of California: UC Riverside School of Medicine.

This measure states that the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine serves an important role in the State of California by training a diverse workforce of physicians and providing health care to an underserved region.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The mission of the University of California,
Riverside (UCR) School of Medicine is to improve the health of
the people of California and, especially, to serve Inland Southern
California by training a diverse workforce of physicians and by
developing innovative research and health care delivery programs
that will improve the health of the medically underserved in the
region and become models to be emulated throughout the state
and the nation; and

WHEREAS, Inland Southern California is vastly undersupplied
with respect to physicians and this region of California has the
lowest supply of physicians per capita than any other region of the
state, according to the California HealthCare Foundation; and

WHEREAS, In primary care specialties alone, many California
counties have far fewer than the 60 to 80 primary care physicians
per 100,000 people, which is considered sufficient to meet demand.
The Inland Empire has approximately 40 primary care physicians
per 100,000 residents; and

WHEREAS, Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans
are vastly underrepresented in the physician workforce, and, in
the Inland Empire alone, more than 45 percent of the population
is Latino, compared to just 5 percent of the physicians in the region;
and

WHEREAS, Inland Southern California also faces a dire health
situation, trailing behind much of the state in several key health
indicators, including coronary heart disease and diabetes; and

WHEREAS, The UCR School of Medicine has received
preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical
Education, the national accrediting body for allopathic, or
M.D.-granting, medical schools, which enables the UCR School
of Medicine to begin recruiting students to enroll an inaugural
class in August 2013; and

WHEREAS, To meet the region’s workforce needs and improve
the health of the population, the UCR School of Medicine will
capitalize on UCR’s nationally recognized diversity and the ethnic
diversity of the region by expanding the educational pipeline into
medicine; and

WHEREAS, The UCR School of Medicine will also expand
UCR’s strength in basic health sciences research to build research
expertise in population health and health outcomes research.
Through its research, the UCR School of Medicine will address
specific health care challenges within Inland Southern California,
serving as a catalyst for community-based participatory research
leading to innovations in population health, preventive care, and
health outcomes; and

WHEREAS, UCR is building its medical school from a long
history of training physicians in partnership with the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) David Geffen School of
Medicine. The UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical
Sciences currently educates 28 first-year and 28 second-year
medical students. Operating for more than 30 years, this partnership
with the UCLA School of Medicine has produced more than 700
physicians; and

WHEREAS, Drawing from UCR’s diverse undergraduate
population, the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in
Biomedical Sciences has established a successful track record of
recruiting, retaining, and graduating highly qualified medical
students from groups that are underrepresented in medicine. A
significant number of programs and partnerships currently exist
that serve potential medical school applicants through mentorship,
pipeline programs, and leadership training; and

WHEREAS, The UCR School of Medicine will continue and
expand existing programs, build new programs and partnerships,
and track key data concerning the applicant pool and the
matriculating students of each class of 50 students. As the UCR
School of Medicine increases the class size to 50 students, drawing
now from a much larger general applicant pool, the UCR School
of Medicine will continue to support programs that enhance the
pool of qualified applicants considered for admission; and

WHEREAS, The UCR School of Medicine will also partner
with existing health care providers for clinical rotations and
residency training, building on the relationships that UCR has
already established with the region’s health care providers; and

WHEREAS, The full funding of the UCR School of Medicine
would ensure the execution of a vision of the first medical school
to be developed in California in more than 40 years, and the UCR
School of Medicine is poised to transform medical education by
training physicians that will be more attuned to the needs of
increasingly diverse and underserved patient populations and will
be an outstanding and much needed asset in the state of California;
now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the University of California, Riverside
School of Medicine serves an important role in the State of
California by training a diverse workforce of physicians and
providing health care to an underserved region; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.