Program seeks candidates for 5-year clinical trial.

The UCLA Health System has launched the UCLA Face Transplantation Program, the first surgical program of it kind in the western United States and one of only a handful in the nation.

“Facial transplantation offers the potential to restore humanity to persons who have suffered the devastating loss of their face,” said Dr. Kodi Azari, chief of reconstructive transplantation and associate professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “People with massive facial injuries often have trouble breathing, speaking and eating, as well as depression and social isolation. Early surgeries have demonstrated very promising results in improving both appearance and function.”

The UCLA face transplantation team recognizes the sensitivity required when it comes to working with patients who have experienced a severe facial disfigurement. Understanding that a person’s identity and sense of self are closely tied to their facial appearance, the team will also support the patient’s emotional adjustment to their new face after the surgery.

“Our goal in creating this program is to return a sense of normalcy to our patients’ lives,” said Dr. Reza Jarrahy, surgical co-director of the new program and assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Geffen School of Medicine. “We hope that restoring facial form and function will provide the opportunity for patients to lead productive lives that are not defined or hampered by facial appearance.”

UCLA is currently seeking patients willing to participate in a face-transplant clinical trial and to be followed for five years after their surgery.

Candidates for the clinical trial will undergo a thorough evaluation to determine whether they meet the criteria for participation. The evaluation includes a comprehensive medical history, a physical examination, lab tests, X-rays and a psychological exam. Approved participants will be placed on a waiting list until the center identifies a suitable match from a donor. Recipients must match the donor’s blood type, gender, ethnicity, skin tone, hair pattern and other criteria.

• The patient’s facial disfigurement cannot be repaired by conventional surgery.
• The disfigurement is not due to a birth defect.
• The patient’s age is between 18 and 60 years.
• The patient has no serious infections, including HIV or hepatitis B or C.
• The patient is in otherwise good general health.
• The patient must commit to extensive rehabilitation after surgery, including soft-tissue massage and speech, swallowing and facial-movement therapies.
• The patient must agree to follow a drug schedule to prevent transplant rejection and attend all appointments at the transplant center.

Dr. Gerald Lipshutz, medical director of the new face transplantation program and associate professor of surgery and medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine, noted that face transplantation is still considered experimental and is not without risk.

“Each patient will need to take drugs the rest of their life to suppress their immune system and prevent rejection of their new face,” Lipshutz said. “One of our study’s purposes is to look at the effectiveness and safety of the anti-rejection drugs that will be used.”

To date, 19 patients worldwide have received partial or complete facial transplants; five of these surgeries have been performed in the United States.

The surgery takes from eight to 20 hours to complete. Surgeons first remove the damaged portions of the patient’s face and then attach the donated face to the patient’s supporting structures. This includes joining soft tissue like skin, fat, muscles, tendons and ligaments and securing the bones with screws and other hardware. The surgery’s most delicate facet involves painstakingly stitching the patient’s nerves and blood vessels — too small to be seen by the naked eye — to those in the new face.

While solid-organ transplants are common at UCLA and other major medical centers, reconstructive transplantation — a complex surgery involving a variety of tissues (including bones, tendons, arteries and nerves) — marks a new direction for the field. Unlike organ transplants, which are performed to save lives, reconstructive transplants aim to dramatically improve them.

“Microvascular transfer of tissues to reconstruct the face is not new. It is very similar to reconstructive surgery after traumatic injury,” said Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, distinguished professor and executive chairman of surgery at the Geffen School of Medicine, who established the UCLA Liver Transplant Program in 1984, the first on the West Coast. “What makes this study experimental is that we are uniting the fields of microvascular reconstructive surgery and transplantation medicine to transplant the face.”

The demand for face transplantation procedures is expected to increase due to long-term U.S. military action overseas. Experts estimate that some 200 veterans have lost all or part of their face. In the civilian sector, nearly 1,000 trauma and burn patients suffer extensive facial injuries that drastically affect their lives.

The UCLA Face Transplantation Program plans to partner with UCLA’s highly successful Operation Mend, which offers facial and hand reconstructive surgery to the nation’s wounded soldiers.

The program will integrate specialists from throughout the UCLA Health System, including the areas of head and neck surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, oral surgery, psychiatry, pathology, anesthesia, internal medicine, radiology, neurology, ethics, and rehabilitation services.

In addition to principal investigator Azari and co-investigators Jarrahy, Lipshutz and Busuttil, co-investigators include Dr. Keith Blackwell, professor of head and neck surgery; Dr. Vishad Nabili, assistant professor of head and neck surgery; and Dr. James Bradley, professor of plastic surgery, all of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

For more information on the study, or to learn more about face transplantation at UCLA, please visit www.facetransplant.ucla.edu or call (310) 794-2558.

The UCLA Health System, which comprises the UCLA Hospital System and the UCLA Medical Group and its affiliates, has provided the best in health care and the most advanced treatment options to the people of Los Angeles and the world for more than half a century. UCLA’s preeminence in health care — a strength that comes from the union of research, teaching and excellence in patient care — continues to be recognized nationally, internationally and in numerous forums. The clinical programs of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center–Santa Monica, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, and Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA have produced a system of hospital care that is unparalleled in California. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is consistently ranked one of the top five hospitals in the nation and the best in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report, and the UCLA Medical Group has been ranked among the best in Southern California for four successive years by the Integrated Healthcare Association. UCLA physicians and hospitals will continue to be world leaders in the full range of care, from maintaining the health of families to the diagnosis and treatment of complex illnesses.

Winner of “human happiness” student video competition announced.

What makes you happy?

That was the question more than 400 UC Berkeley students had to consider before they completed Psychology 162 this spring.

This was no ordinary assignment, and it was no ordinary class. The class, called “Human Happiness,” was taught by Greater Good Science Center Faculty Director Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at Berkeley. Keltner offered his students an interdisciplinary tour of the new science of happiness, covering topics such as gratitude, awe, humor, and compassion.

Toward the end of the semester, Keltner presented his students with an unusual extra credit assignment: Produce a short video illustrating at least one of the key concepts covered in “Human Happiness.” The videos had to be short (1-3 minutes), draw on the material they covered in class, and answer the question, “What makes you happy?”

Working alone or in groups, more than 100 students submitted a total of 60 videos. Keltner says he was blown away by the results.

“What you want as a teacher is for students to engage with the material really deeply and take it in their own directions,” he says. “You can never quite see that on an exam. But this assignment really captured the students’ vision—their personal voice, the depth of their reflection. It brought tears to my eyes, to be honest.”

Greater Good staff narrowed the pool of 60 submissions to 10 finalists, which it then presented to an illustrious panel of judges, including:

• Keltner, who was teaching “Human Happiness” for the fourth time;
• Yoo-Mi Lee, the coordinator of KarmaTube, a website that features inspiring videos;
• Frederick Marx, a producer of the documentary “Hoop Dreams” and the founder of Warrior Films;
• UC Berkeley psychology professor Iris Mauss, an emotion researcher and happiness expert;
• and Randy Taran, the founder of Project Happiness, which teaches young people “social and emotional skills for a meaningful life,” including through a documentary of the same name.

Brochure focuses on UC advancements in patient care, research and training.

University of California Health delivers hope that tumors can be treated, diseases can be defeated and conditions can be cured.

A new brochure highlights innovations by UC Health’s five medical centers and 18 professional schools and programs that improve patient care, advance research and change how health professionals are trained.

Read about UC Health’s advancements in transplants, breakthroughs in biotechnology and collaborations to increase value, including a list of 60 innovations that exemplify how UC Health is changing the course of medicine one discovery at a time. For more information, view the innovations brochure.

PrEP treatment will target populations at risk for HIV infection in urban centers.

In these scanning electron micrographs from Thomas Deerinck at UC San Diego, multitudinous HIV-1 particles exit from a cultured HeLa cell. The image is false-colored.

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) of the University of California announced today (April 17) that it has awarded grants totaling $11.8 million to three teams of investigators to test a potential HIV prevention pill among high-risk HIV-uninfected people in California.

The studies also will examine new strategies to engage and retain HIV-infected people in care and treatment. These combined strategies are expected to help curb the HIV epidemic in California.

Two of the research teams will offer the HIV prevention pill — part of an intervention known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis with antiretroviral drugs) — to an estimated 700 high-risk uninfected men who have sex with men (MSM) and to transgender women (male-to-female transgendered people) in Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach over the next four years. PrEP also includes the provision of risk-reduction counseling and other services.

These researchers also will assess the implementation of testing and linkage to care plus treatment — known as “TLC+” — a strategy to locate, engage and retain HIV-infected people in care and start them on life-saving treatment for HIV infection. The TLC+ intervention will include some 3,000 people in Southern California.

A third research group will not fully implement PrEP or TLC+ at this time, but will instead plan and pilot PrEP/TLC+ implementation strategies for young MSM of color in Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley and other East Bay locations.

This will be the largest PrEP/TLC+ demonstration project initiative in the U.S. and the first to test PrEP in these Southern California communities.

“HIV has been with us for more than 30 years, and it’s time to provide some new interventions for high-risk people so they have options to protect themselves and prevent further transmission,” said George Lemp, Dr.P.H., director of the UC-based CHRP. “We hope this new approach can finally help to curtail the epidemic in this state.”

“These studies will provide critical information on the implementation of PrEP and TLC+ strategies in California and will help guide state and national efforts to address the epidemic,” Lemp added.

“UC is pleased to support this important initiative in California, which we believe is unique in the nation,” said Steven Beckwith, UC vice president for research and graduate studies.”We are pleased that UC resources and talent can play an important role in addressing these health care challenges as the research arm of the state.”

In these California demonstration projects, PrEP will be delivered as part of a comprehensive prevention package including risk-reduction counseling, sexually transmitted infection screening, and other components. Daily tenofovir/FTC (Truvada, a tenofovir/emtricitabine two-drug combination pill manufactured and distributed by Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City) will be offered to eligible uninfected high-risk men who have sex with men, as well as to transgender women. Gilead Sciences will provide the drug to support these studies. The studies will adhere to safety and implementation guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previous international research has shown PrEP to be very effective in preventing new HIV infections among MSM and selected other risk populations, but only when taken as prescribed in addition to ongoing risk-reduction counseling, said Lemp. Recent studies have suggested that mixed results found for some populations may be due to a lack of consistent adherence to the medication, leading to suboptimal or ineffective levels of drug in the body, he noted.

In addition, Lemp said, other studies have suggested that identifying people infected with HIV and rapid institution of antiretroviral therapy not only improves survival of those treated, but also lowers the level of HIV virus in the community and might ultimately reduce HIV transmission rates.

The three grantee consortiums for this initiative include:

The Division of HIV and STD Programs at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in collaboration with UCLA, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, AIDS Project Los Angeles, and the OASIS Clinic at Charles Drew University (total four-year budget: $5,767,146).  The L.A. County PrEP and TLC+ for HIV Prevention (PATH) consortium will conduct extensive screening for HIV among populations in high disease burden locations in Los Angeles County. The L.A. County PATH PrEP demonstration project plans to enroll 375 high-risk MSM and trangender women, who will receive a customized prevention package that may include PrEP. Of these, about 300 people will receive daily tenofovir/FTC-based PrEP, and will be assessed for safety, feasibility, adherence (using a real-time and full drug-level monitoring plan), risk behavior and HIV seroconversions over a 48-week period.

The L.A. County PATH TLC+ strategy plans a social network testing intervention among high-risk MSM (about 750 participants), with linkage to care for newly diagnosed HIV positive people. The group also will test strategies to re-engage out-of-care HIV-infected people using social networks, a peer navigation program and an intensive case management strategy (about 1,200 participants in this component).

“This demonstration project provides a unique opportunity to rigorously evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of biomedical HIV prevention strategies that have shown efficacy for reducing HIV transmission but have not been tested more broadly in high-risk communities outside of the clinical trial setting,” said Jennifer Sayles, M.D., M.P.H., medical director at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Division of HIV and STD Programs, and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA. “Operational and implementation research conducted through this grant will allow us to answer some of the critical public health questions most relevant to curbing our local epidemic.”

The University of California, San Diego (lead project investigator Richard Haubrich, M.D.), in collaboration with the UCSD Antiviral Research Center and Owen Clinic; the L.A. County-University of Southern California Rand Schrader Clinic; the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; the San Diego County HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch; and the Long Beach Health and Human Services Agency (total four-year budget: $5,688,621). The California Collaborative Treatment Group (CCTG) consortium will conduct extensive HIV screening in San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach, including a social network-based testing strategy. The CCTG plans to enroll 400 eligible high-risk MSM, who will receive daily tenofovir/FTC-based PrEP, into a randomized study that evaluates whether a text messaging-based adherence intervention can improve their adherence to the PrEP medication. The study will follow participants for safety, feasibility, adherence, risk behavior and HIV seroconversion over a period averaging about two years.

The group also will assess the impact of active linkage and engagement (ALERT) specialists, who will work to ensure that people recently testing HIV positive (or who have fallen out of care) are engaged into HIV care and that eligible high-risk HIV-uninfected people are offered PrEP. The goal of the ALERT specialist is to reduce the time from HIV diagnosis to initiation of treatment. The CCTG investigations will involve some 1,500 participants.

“There is no question that biomedical HIV prevention strategies, such as PrEP for HIV-uninfected and initiation of early antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected people, can prevent future HIV infection,” said Richard Haubrich, M.D., CCTG director and UC San Diego professor of medicine. “The key is to empower people to initiate and maintain strict adherence to therapy. Ultimately, we hope these efforts will result in a reduction of new HIV infections in high-risk populations and improved clinical outcome for those who are currently HIV infected.”

The East Bay AIDS Center at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland and Berkeley (lead project investigator Jeffrey Burack, M.D., M.P.P., B.Phil.), in collaboration with the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at UC San Francisco (total one-year budget: $336,730). This consortium will develop and refine innovative strategies for outreach, HIV testing, sexual health services and linkage to care for young MSM of color in Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley and other East Bay locations. The group will conduct a pilot study of clinic-based social network testing and self-testing for HIV, in the context of an innovative sexual health services program. The East Bay consortium also will plan and pilot strategies to offer PrEP to high-risk HIV-uninfected young MSM of color. The researchers will study model programs for engaging young HIV-positive MSM of color in primary care and will conduct focus groups and in-depth interviews to assess needs and priorities of this population, with the goal of eventually fielding a larger scale prevention program that incorporates culturally appropriate PrEP and TLC+.

“Young MSM of color in urban California are especially vulnerable to HIV, with annual rates of new infection comparable to those in sub-Saharan Africa,” said lead project investigator Jeffrey Burack, M.D., M.P.P., B.Phil., co-medical director of the East Bay AIDS Center and associate clinical professor at UC Berkeley and UCSF. “But these very people most at risk have been woefully under-researched when it comes to prevention interventions that will actually reach them. With CHRP’s support, we hope to implement and evaluate promising new interventions to stem the relentless surge of HIV through our community, potentially reducing its terrible toll on young lives and its costs to our health care system.”

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) provides state funding for cutting-edge, merit-reviewed, HIV-related research conducted at nonprofit research institutions and community-based organizations throughout California. The program has awarded more than 2,000 research grants to more than 50 California institutions since 1983. A 2006 survey of California investigators found that more than $5 in federal and other grant support was generated for every dollar invested by CHRP in California-based research.

For more information about the California HIV/AIDS Research Program, visit www.californiaaidsresearch.org.

UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center to transform world-class research into top-quality clinical care.

Irwin and Joan Jacobs at the Jacobs Medical Center groundbreaking

Philanthropists, community leaders, health care visionaries, architects and contractors, along with faculty and staff of UC San Diego, gathered April 9 to celebrate the official start of construction for the Jacobs Medical Center, a 10-story, multispecialty medical center that will open in La Jolla in 2016. The new medical center will transform the delivery of health care by ensuring that medical research discoveries are quickly translated into enhanced patient care.

Almost exactly two years after announcing a pledge of $75 million from Joan and Irwin Jacobs to name the new facility, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences David A. Brenner and the Jacobs were among those putting ceremonial shovels to dirt at the future site of Jacobs Medical Center, directly adjacent to Thornton Hospital. The new facility will house the Hospital for Advanced Surgery, Cancer Hospital and the Hospital for Women and Infants.

The visionary gift from the Jacobs will help fund a state-of-the art medical center that will be the largest component of the university’s East Campus in La Jolla, and allow the UC San Diego Health System to become one of the premier destination academic medical centers in the country. In addition to increasing the speed at which medical breakthroughs are translated into clinical practice, the Jacobs Medical Center will serve as an educational space for the next generation of physicians, pharmacists and scientists.

Changing the landscape of health care

As Chancellor Fox pointed out in her opening remarks at Monday’s celebration, “as long as you have the word ‘Jacobs’ in the sentence, you know a groundbreaking event will be a huge success.”

This isn’t the Jacobs’ first UC San Diego groundbreaking ceremony. Irwin Jacobs attended the groundbreaking for the Basic Science Building on campus in September 1966, when the School of Medicine and Health System were still plans on the drawing board. Jacobs added that he never dreamed his family would one day be in the position to help build a new state-of-the-art medical center on campus.

“When we heard what could be accomplished here – for this city, the campus, nation and the world – and how we could attract the very best doctors who would come to UC San Diego to train new physicians, we thought this project would be very important to support,” he said.  Joan and Irwin also introduced Carol Vassiliadis, to acknowledge her recent pledge to help fund the medical surgery floor at the Jacobs Medical Center Hospital for Cancer Care.

“The support of our vision by the Jacobs and other generous donors will literally change the landscape of health care in San Diego, and strengthen our ability to serve patients from the region and beyond,” said David A. Brenner, vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the UCSD School of Medicine.”As the region’s only academic medical center, UC San Diego Health System is known for the synergy between our clinical and research mission.  We are committed to integrating into these beautiful new facilities the most advanced approaches to personalized medicine, high-risk pregnancies, imaging, surgery and the treatment of cancer.”

Irwin Jacobs, co-founder, former chairman and CEO of Qualcomm Inc., a San Diego-based Fortune 500 company, was also a founding faculty member of UC San Diego, serving as a professor of electrical and computer engineering from 1966 to 1972.  Both he and his wife, Joan, have been dedicated advisors as well as donors to the university, and each has served as board members of the UC San Diego Foundation.  Joan was a cofounder of the Friends of the International Center and the Friends of the Stuart Collection, as well as a long-term board member of the La Jolla Playhouse.  She currently chairs the UC San Diego Health System Advisory Board.

A transformative facility

The 509,500-square-foot facility will add 245 private patient rooms and include four hospitals in one location: the existing Thornton Hospital and the future Hospital for Advanced Surgery, Cancer Hospital and the Hospital for Women and Infants. Architecturally, this timeless and transformative building will center on the individual patient experience of those seeking a variety of specialized care. The architectural vision is to create a facility that is responsive to their unique needs, while incorporating input from medical faculty, staff and community members.

One of the most important features of the new medical center is its garden-based design, which includes numerous outdoor areas. Both interior and exterior spaces have been included to maximize natural light. Patients exposed to sunlight and fresh air recover faster, both physically and mentally. In terms of operations, the design incorporates the findings of work flow and efficiency studies, addressing areas where efficiency can be increased for the benefit of the patient. For example, in order to simplify the patient experience, there will be a “Patient Intake Center” that allows for the consolidation of many hospital services into one location at the front door of the hospital. Additional provisions for families of patients have been planned throughout the tower, including dedicated family areas and “living rooms” on each bed floor. There will also be a Helistop (helicopter pad) on the roof with direct access to all floors.

For more information about the Jacobs Medical Center and how you can support it, go to For more information about the Jacobs Medical Center and how you can support it go to http://health.ucsd.edu/jacobs.

UCSF’s Robert Lustig, other experts detail science behind sugar’s impact on our waistlines.

Is sugar a toxin that’s fueling the global obesity epidemic? That’s the argument UC San Francisco Dr. Robert Lustig makes in “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” a video that appeared on University of California Television’s (UCTV) YouTube channel in 2009 and has since gone viral with over 2.2 million views, sparking a national dialogue and warranting coverage in The New York Times and most recently on “60 Minutes.”

On UCTV Prime’s new series, “The Skinny on Obesity,” Lustig and two of his UCSF colleagues tease out the science behind this alarming claim and the dire threat it poses to global public health. The seven-part documentary series premieres April 13 on UCTV Prime, a YouTube original channel, with new episodes every Friday. Video and bonus content are available at www.uctv.tv/skinny-on-obesity.

Throughout the series, Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and his colleagues Elissa Epel and Barbara Laraia, co-directors of the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment (COAST), unpack the scientific and sociological factors that have contributed to the startling rise in obesity rates over the last 30 years. Featuring interviews, charts and graphic visualizations, the six- to 10-minute episodes provide a comprehensive perspective on an issue that affects everyone, of any weight.

Episode guide:

April 13: An Epidemic for Every Body

How did we get so fat, so fast? The debut episode debunks the theory that obesity only affects the “gluttons and sloths” among us and is, in fact, a public health problem that impacts everyone.

April 20: Sickeningly Sweet

Lustig illustrates the overabundance of sugar in today’s processed convenience foods and explains how our bodies metabolize these sugars in the same way as alcohol or other toxins, causing damage to the liver and other organs.

April 27:  Hunger and Hormones: A Vicious Cycle

Sugar impacts the brain just as much as the waistline. In this episode, Lustig explains the biochemical shifts that sugar causes, making us store fat and feel hungry at the same time.

May 4: Sugar: A Sweet Addiction

Sugar isn’t just sweet, it’s addictive. This episode explores the cycle of addiction that sugar causes in the brain, much in the same way as drugs and alcohol.

May 11: Generation XL

An unnerving trend of obese infants is just one indication that obesity can be passed on from mother to fetus. This installment looks towards the next generation, with an emphasis on preventive care and prenatal health.

May 18: A Fast-Paced, Fast Food Life

The pace of modern life is a key contributor to today’s obesity epidemic. Elissa Epel and Barbara Laraia explain the connection and offer practical and effective solutions that don’t involve dieting and exercise.

May 25: Drugs, Cigarettes, Alcohol … and Sugar?

Our experts offer a frank indictment of the country’s agricultural policy and food industry, which have made it nearly impossible to avoid sugar in our daily diet, and suggestions for possible remedies.

UCTV Prime launched March 1 as the first university-run channel to be included among YouTube’s new production partnerships with recognizable brands like The Wall Street Journal, Madonna and TED. With documentary mini-series, interviews, commentaries and video shorts each week, UCTV Prime brings to light the innovations, trends, issues and personalities that shape our world, drawing on the tremendous knowledge resources of the University of California’s ten campuses, five medical schools, three national labs and other affiliated institutions.

Based on the UC San Diego campus, UCTV presents educational and enrichment programming from the campuses, national laboratories, and affiliated institutions of the University of California. UCTV delivers science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities and the arts to a general audience, as well as specialized programming for health care professionals, teachers and researchers. UCTV is available worldwide via live stream, video archives and podcasting at www.uctv.tv, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/uctv and www.youtube.com/uctvprime, on iTunesU in the Beyond Campus section, and on cable in select cities throughout California. For a complete list of UCTV’s outlets, visit www.uctv.tv/wheretowatch.

New programs feature latest autism research from UC Davis’ MIND Institute.

April is National Autism Awareness Month.

UCTV celebrates National Autism Awareness Month with a slate of new programs featuring the latest research on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders from the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Programs include:

Autism Research and Policy: A Family’s Journey
First air date: April 23

Summit on Autism
First air date: March 5

A New Vision for the MIND Institute
First air date: Feb. 27

A Community Forum: Autism Spectrum Disorders
First air date: Feb. 13

Tap Into the Potential of the Multi Touch Interface
First air date: Feb. 6

View more

Related:
UC Davis MIND Institute holds family open house April 28 for Autism Awareness Month

Impact includes caring for uninsured patients, training professionals and conducting research.

For the first time, University of California Health has measured the collective impact it has in caring for uninsured patients, educating tomorrow’s health leaders and advancing science to tackle medicine’s toughest challenges.

The estimated community benefit of UC Health’s five medical centers totaled $3.3 billion last year.

“As a public university and cornerstone of the safety net, UC Health is committed to serve California’s health needs,” said Dr. John Stobo, UC senior vice president for health sciences and services.” Our combined community benefit demonstrates the powerful impact UC Health has as a system.”

Throughout UC Health, student-run clinics collaborate across their campuses and within their communities to treat patients from the working poor to the homeless and their pets. UC’s three nurse-run clinics provide compassionate care to underserved patients in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco. UC’s innovative Programs in Medical Education (PRIME) train doctors where they are most needed with programs focused on rural health and telemedicine (UC Davis), the Latino community (UC Irvine), the diverse disadvantaged (UCLA, UC Riverside), the San Joaquin Valley (UC Merced, UC Davis, UCSF), health equity (UC San Diego), and the urban underserved (UCSF, UC Berkeley).

UC Health has the nation’s largest health sciences educational system, with 18 professional schools and programs on seven campuses. Its community impact is felt in all corners of the state, through telemedicine services, clinical trials, classroom collaborations and affiliations such as UCLA’s partnership with the Venice Family Clinic, the nation’s largest free clinic.

Community benefits include programs or activities that improve access to care, enhance community health, advance medical knowledge and reduce the burden of government or other community efforts.

Here is a breakdown of UC Health’s community benefit in fiscal 2011, with totals from the health sciences campuses that have medical centers – UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSF:

-Charity care and unreimbursed care: $560.7 million
Free medical services for patients who had no source of payment for urgently needed care and the unpaid cost of Medicare, Medi-Cal, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, indigent care programs and other safety net programs.

-Education: $174.7 million
Health professions education encompasses teaching physicians, nurses and students as well as scholarships and funding for education.

-Donations/sponsorships: $1.8 million
Through financial and in-kind contributions, UC Health offers support to community organizations to improve community health.

-Research: $2.6 billion
UC research gives local residents access to the latest treatments and therapies for advanced illness and complex health conditions.

For more information, view UC Health’s community impact brochure.

Related links:

• UC Davis community benefit report
• UC San Diego community benefit fact sheet
• UCSF: committed to the city
  

UC Irvine’s new nurse-run clinic helps address growing doctor shortages.

Faculty and students in UC Irvine's nursing science program help those in need at a Santa Ana wellness center. (Click image for larger view.)

In a bustling trailer at the El Sol Science & Arts Academy in downtown Santa Ana, UC Irvine′s Program in Nursing Science offers a window to health care′s future. Children and their parents fill a sparse waiting area, but the people in white coats who move from room to room seeing the young patients aren′t physicians. They′re nurse practitioners and UCI nursing students.

The Program in Nursing Science, in collaboration with the existing SOS-El Sol Wellness Center, established Orange County′s first nurse-managed practice in January. Along with providing health care to the charter school′s students and parents and to people living in the neighborhood, the trailer-housed clinic is showing how nurses can step up to address the growing shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S.

The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that there will be 90,000 fewer doctors than needed a decade from now, with half in the area of primary care. Helping to fill the gap, says clinic director Susanne Phillips, a UCI associate clinical professor of nursing science, will be nurse practitioners such as those at the El Sol academy.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with advanced education and clinical training in primary care. They’re licensed in California to prescribe medications, manage chronic diseases, promote health literacy and, when necessary, confer with physician specialists.

At the SOS-El Sol Wellness Center, under the guidance of UCI nursing science faculty, students pursuing either a bachelor’s or a nurse practitioner master’s degree will gain hands-on experience in community-based health care.

″With nurse practitioners playing a greater role in primary care today, practices like this one are vitally important for delivering much-needed healthcare to underserved communities and for educating tomorrow’s nursing workforce,″ Phillips says.

To expand the wellness center′s health assessment services, UCI′s nursing science program received a $1.5 million federal grant to partner with El Sol and Share Our Selves, a nonprofit, Costa Mesa-based poverty relief agency that oversees existing medical, dental and behavioral services. The center is staffed by UCI nurse practitioner faculty members — including Phillips, Camille Fitzpatrick and Susan Tiso — and Alina Matutes from Share Our Selves. Phillips talks about the endeavor.

Q: How did the idea for the clinic come about?
A: The nurse practitioner faculty had a vision to develop and manage a practice. Camille Fitzpatrick was coordinating the medical-provider volunteers at El Sol, and when Share Our Selves — which has a medical license — became involved, we proposed the idea. Since Camille was already seeing patients there and taking students, I approached El Sol with a proposal that our faculty see patients and have a site for our students′ training. They thought it was a great idea, and subsequently, we were funded to achieve this goal.

Q: Nurse practitioners offer many of the services that primary-care doctors do, but what are some of the characteristic differences?
A: Nurse practitioners are nationally board-certified and provide health care in primary, acute and long-term settings in family practice, gerontology, pediatrics, mental health and women′s health. They take a distinctive approach that stresses care and cure, focusing on health promotion, disease prevention, health education and counseling.

Q: With a severe shortage of primary-care physicians on the horizon, how can nurse practitioners help fill that need?
A: There are currently 250 nurse-managed health centers across the country that record more than 2.5 million patient visits annually. They have the capacity to serve millions more. Nurse-managed health centers are staffed by nurse practitioners and are located primarily in medically underserved areas. They incorporate wellness promotion, disease prevention and management of chronic conditions, as well as provide dental, behavioral and mental healthcare. Nurse practitioners have the potential to significantly improve the health of American children and their families.

Q: How did UCI’s nurse practitioner master′s program originate?
A: UCI began educating nurse practitioners in 1996 in the Department of Family Medicine as a post-master′s degree certificate program. In 2004, the university started collaborating with Cal State Fullerton to provide family nurse practitioner coursework for their master′s students while continuing the post-master’s program. In 2009, UCI admitted its first master′s-level nurse practitioner students.

Q: How will these students participate in clinic activities?
A: They’ll have an opportunity to complete clinical hours with faculty supervision. In addition to the El Sol clinic, they will rotate through Share Our Selves′ Comprehensive Care Center in Costa Mesa. Undergraduate nursing students can complete their clinical education at El Sol through pediatrics, OB/GYN, leadership and community health rotations. Our goal is to prepare expert public health nurses with an emphasis on ambulatory nursing care in underserved areas.

Q: How important is it for UCI′s nursing program to participate in the community?
A: One of our missions is to provide care and service to our community at large, specifically its underserved areas. Nurse practitioners are in high demand in both urban and rural areas, and it′s vital to be well prepared to render services outside the infrastructure of a large healthcare institution. By partnering with local community health care agencies and identifying and responding to their needs, UCI can equip a nursing workforce to provide expert care.

U.S. News ranks UCSF pharmacy school first, UC medical schools near top.

University of California Health ranked among the nation’s best graduate schools in a survey released today (March 13) by U.S. News & World Report.

All five UC medical schools placed in the top 50 nationally for research rankings and four placed in the top 30 nationally for primary care rankings.

In research, UC San Francisco was the top-ranked public school and fifth among all U.S. schools, with UCLA 13th overall, UC San Diego tied for 16th, UC Davis tied for 42nd and UC Irvine tied for 44th. In primary care, UCSF tied for third, UCLA ranked 10th, UC Davis tied for 24th and UC San Diego tied for 27th. UCSF has the only medical school ranked in the top five of both categories.

Also, UCSF ranked first in pharmacy and UCLA first in clinical psychology while UC medical schools received high marks in a number of specialty programs. UCSF ranked first in AIDS, second in women’s health, third in internal medicine, tied for third in family medicine, sixth in drug/alcohol abuse, ninth in geriatrics and tied for 10th in pediatrics. UCLA ranked third in geriatrics, sixth in AIDS and seventh in drug/alcohol abuse. UC San Diego ranked eighth in AIDS and in drug/alcohol abuse. UC Davis tied for ninth in rural medicine.

U.S. News’ 2013 America’s Best Graduate Schools rankings were released online today (March 13) and can be viewed at www.usnews.com/grad.

The new rankings include previous assessments of a number of other health fields, which U.S. News also surveys but not each year. UC Davis ranked second in veterinary medicine, UCSF ranked tied for fourth in overall nursing, while in public health UC Berkeley tied for eighth and UCLA was 10th. The surveys do not rank dental or optometry schools.

UC Health runs five medical centers and the nation’s largest health sciences education system with more than 14,000 students and 18 health professional schools and programs in medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine.

Related links:

• UC Davis
• UCLA
• UC San Diego
• UC San Francisco 

See photos and video from event, which attracted nearly 450 people.

UCLA and UC Davis graduate Courtney Burks answers questions about her abstract at UC Global Health Day. (Click image to view more photos.)

The second annual UC Global Health Day, hosted at UC Berkeley on Feb. 4, was a sold-out event attended by nearly 450 faculty, students, staff and trainees from across the UC system as well as international participants. This year’s event focused on population growth and its impact on health worldwide, and was a showcase for global health research being undertaken by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty across the UC campuses.

Two special sessions in the morning featured prominent speakers from the United States and abroad. UC Berkeley School of Public Health professor Malcolm Potts, director and founder of the Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability, chaired the first session on population, consumption and human wellbeing. Martha Campbell, lecturer in global health at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, chaired the second morning session, Consequences of High Fertility and Population Growth: The Special Case of Africa.

“The future of many African nations hinges on the policies that African governments develop and the investment the international community is prepared to make around voluntary family planning,” said Campbell.

Sir John E. Sulston, the 2002 Nobel laureate in medicine, was the first keynote speaker. He chairs the People and the Planet Working Group of the Royal Society, London. Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu, executive director of the African Institute for Development Policy, Nairobi, and president of the Union for African Population Studies, Kenya, was the second keynote speaker.

Videos of the welcome session and the two morning plenary panels are available on the UC Berkeley YouTube channel.

Both morning plenary sessions also featured prominent scientists from several UC campuses. The afternoon breakout sessions covered a broad range of global health topics presented by faculty and students from across the UC system.

“Students and young faculty are the main drivers behind the incredible growth in global health research and education programs on UC campuses,” said Dr. Haile Debas, director of the UC Global Health Institute and former chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine at UCSF. “UC Global Health Day provides a forum to share their research and ignite collaborations that could lead to innovations in addressing major health problems in developing countries.”

The conference was sponsored by the UC Global Health Institute, in partnership with the UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health, UC Berkeley Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability, and the Northern California International Health Interest Group, with additional support from the UC Office of the President Division of Health Sciences and Services and Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation.

Find out more:

• Photos
• Videos of the presentations
• Bios of keynote speakers
• Press release