15th annual fundraiser for UC San Diego project that serves the underserved.

Ellen Beck, UC San Diego

The UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Project will host its 15th annual fundraiser gala, “Light up the Night” on Thursday (May 16). All proceeds will benefit the free clinic project, which provides high-quality medical, dental, pharmacy, acupuncture, legal and social services to San Diego’s uninsured, working poor and homeless. More than 2,000 San Diegans annually rely on the comprehensive, integrative health services offered at the free clinic project. As part of this year’s event, 41 third-year medical students who work in the clinic have each committed up to $5,000 of their future earnings to support the Student-Run Free Clinic Project, bringing their total pledges to more than $160,000.

“Each year, the Student-Run Free Clinic Project helps thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds access high-quality health care, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Ellen Beck, M.D., clinical professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Our patients cannot afford insurance or clinic visits, and do not qualify for most government programs. The support of our remarkable students, alumni, donors, volunteers and community partners will allow us to continue to make a difference in the lives of countless patients — whether they are coming to us with an urgent need, chronic illness or other concerns.”

Established in 1997, more than 500 students from UC San Diego School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, California Western School of Law, San Diego State University School of Social Work, California State University San Marcos School of Nursing, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and the UC San Diego Pre-Dental Society are involved in the day-to-day management of the free clinic project. The students work under the direct supervision of 100 licensed professionals, including physicians, pharmacists, dentists, lawyers and social workers.

Dylan Mann is a medical student who has worked for two years at the Student-Run Free Clinic Project. He pledged to give back to the project after his graduation from medical school.

“Along with many of my colleagues, I am inclined to donate to the UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic because this allows more vulnerable San Diegans to access essential health care and social services,” said Mann. “By committing a portion of our future salaries, we hope to inspire others, inviting them to join us in supporting this vital community resource.”

Since its inception, more than 35,000 clinic visits have taken place, offering transdisciplinary health care services, including specialty care for cardiovascular, ophthalmologic and mental health needs. Prescriptions, lab work and related services are available at no charge. More than 85 percent of the patients have chronic conditions in need of ongoing care, especially diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and depression. The project has four longstanding community partners that provide space for the clinic services throughout the region: Baker Elementary in Southeast San Diego, First Lutheran Church Downtown, Pacific Beach United Methodist Church and Golden Avenue Elementary/ Lemon Grove Academy for the Humanities and Sciences in Lemon Grove.

Read more

Related link:
Community impact: Student-run clinics

UC San Diego chancellor visits Tijuana to learn about industry, health care and education.

Health Frontiers in Tijuana Clinic

From touring the production floor of one of Mexico’s best places to work to witnessing a student-run free health clinic in action, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla’s visit to Tijuana, Mexico, Friday offered him an introduction to the bustling metropolis just across the border from San Diego. The one-day tour included visits to Hospital Angeles Tijuana, the Health Frontiers in Tijuana Clinic, the Business Innovation and Technology Center, El Florido Parque Industrial, and the Culinary Art School.

“I’m pleased to have the opportunity to meet with our community partners in Tijuana and learn more about this region and cross-border issues,” said Khosla. “My goal is to strengthen the existing partnerships between UC San Diego and our neighboring country, and pursue other opportunities for collaboration. Our teamwork is vital for the economic and social growth and prosperity of our regions, and we look forward to the ongoing exchange of ideas.”

Accompanying Khosla in Tijuana were Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor for Public Programs at UC San Diego; Juan Lasheras, interim dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering; Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, director of the university’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies; and James Clark, director general of the Mexico Business Center at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, who helped arrange the trip.

The day began with a visit to Hospital Angeles Tijuana, Mexico’s largest private hospital network and a top-tier facility for medical care. In a series of brief presentations, Khosla was introduced to the hospital’s breadth of services, novel technology and leading-edge research. Representatives from UC San Diego and Hospital Tijuana discussed where there may be opportunities for future collaboration, from research and clinical trials to training students.

Next on the tour was a visit to a different side of healthcare in Tijuana: a student-run free clinic in one of the city’s poorest districts. About a dozen patients, many homeless, gathered in the alley in front of the Health Frontiers in Tijuana (HFiT) Clinic, waiting to be seen.

The HFiT Clinic is a collaborative project of UC San Diego and the Universidad Autónomo de Baja California. Students from both sides of the border are mentored by faculty at the clinic to provide free care for underserved populations in Tijuana. Faculty and students also collaborate on a number of research projects focusing on HIV and STD prevention, substance abuse, policing practices and sex trafficking.

“There is an intense need for health services here,” said Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of global health sciences at UC San Diego, as she gave an overview of the project. “We align research, training and service. And we, the professors, learn as much from the students as they learn from us.”

Before leaving the site, Khosla thanked the graduating medical students for their work. “What you’re doing here is truly amazing,” he said. “I had heard about some of this work, but it is not the same as being here today and seeing the impact.”

Read more

SF Health Improvement Partnership celebrates early successes, looks to increase impact.

(From left) Tekeshe Mekennon, Rena Pasick and Michael Potter gather at the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP) event held at the Women's Building on March 28.

Despite San Francisco’s advances in biomedical research, high tech innovation and cutting-edge thinking, the city contends with significant health challenges and disparities across its diverse population – ranking 23^rd in health outcomes among California’s 57 counties.

Since 2011, UC San Francisco has been a part of a broad coalition working under the banner of San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP) that’s been trying to close this gap and achieve measurable improvements in health.

In support of SF HIP’s mission and goals, nearly 150 community, civic, academic and private champions of community health from across the city gathered at the Women’s Building on March 28 in the city’s Mission district to recognize and celebrate the group’s initial successes, and lay the groundwork for efforts of partnership working in five prioritized health areas.

Read more

UC Riverside medical school faculty partnering with Inland Empire Health Plan, Riverside County Regional Medical Center to provide tailored, coordinated care.

The Access Clinic at Riverside County Regional Medical Center is staffed by (from left): UC Riverside's Emma Simmons, RCRMC's Melissa Seinturier and Eliza Vega, and UC Riverside's Scott Allen.

For adults with disabilities, a significant barrier is finding health care that is appropriate to their needs, accessible, respects their dignity and promotes their independence. A new clinic at Riverside County Regional Medical Center (RCRMC), supported in part by a grant from the Riverside Community Health Foundation, aims to fill this need and improve health outcomes for this vulnerable population.

“As simple as it may sound, healthcare services for the disabled are not always that accessible,” said Dr. Scott Allen, medical director of the Access Clinic and associate clinical professor in the UCR School of Medicine. “Accessibility means a number of things.  At a minimum, it means physical accessibility of the building, the clinic space, the exam table and the diagnostic and therapeutic areas.  On a more broad level, it means services that are easy to access when they are needed and it means services that are tailored to the patient’s needs and culture.”

The Access Clinic is a primary care clinic that uses the “patient-centered medical home” model of care – a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – to more efficiently coordinate medical treatment between adult disabled patients, their family and caregivers, their primary care physician and specialists.

A primary goal of the clinic is to coordinate medical care among multiple providers, which might include specialist providers, such as nutritionists, physical and occupational therapists, ophthalmologists and psychologists. The clinic is working with RCRMC, the Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) and UCR medical school to develop a referral network of sub-specialists and other providers.

It currently operates eight half-days each week Monday through Friday and is accepting new patients. The clinic is housed within the Family Medicine Clinic at RCRMC and is staffed by Allen; Dr. Emma Simmons, associate dean for student affairs in the UCR medical school; Melissa Seinturier, a nurse case manager; and Eliza Vega, a health services assistant.

Read more

$3M Kaiser grant will support UC Riverside med school’s aims to diversify workforce.

Click image for larger view

The School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside has been awarded a grant of $3 million over a two-year period from health care provider Kaiser Permanente Southern California to increase the size and reach of the school’s existing “pipeline programs” — a continuum of student enrichment and academic support programs — and thus broaden and diversify the pool of students applying to medical school.

“Imagining Your Future in Medicine,” the theme of the augmented pipeline programs, addresses student needs that are distinctive at each phase of the path toward becoming a physician — middle school, high school, community college, university and medical school. It extends beyond the School of Medicine’s two signature pipeline programs, the Medical Scholars Program and FastStart, which focus on the undergraduate phase of the medical education continuum.

G. Richard Olds, UC Riverside

“This timely and generous support from Kaiser Permanente Southern California will help us vastly expand the capabilities of the medical school and inspire more young students in Inland Southern California to become service-minded physicians,” said G. Richard Olds, the founding dean of the School of Medicine and the vice chancellor for health affairs. “Best of all, the gift will allow us to reach students even in middle schools, engage them early in the sciences and prepare them for admission to medical school and eventually health-related careers.”

By integrating pipeline programs for middle school, high school and community college students in Inland Southern California, “Imagining Your Future in Medicine” aims to ultimately bring greater diversity to the Inland Southern California physician workforce, which currently does not reflect the ethnic fabric of the region. Its activities, such as academic and career enrichment tactics, parental involvement and financial support, are specifically designed to enhance students’ eligibility for entry into medical school.

“Imagining Your Future in Medicine” strives to maintain continuity between the individual pipeline programs, leading to sustained student engagement and retention into and through completion of medical school. Once students join the pipeline, the medical school will provide a seamless pathway for academic preparation and enrichment, preparing students for entry into medical training and ultimately residency, particularly in primary care and short-supply specialties.

“Our model of outreach and engagement begins at an earlier stage than most models because we believe that if we are to effectively prepare students for successful admission to medical school, we must begin focusing our efforts when they are just starting to formulate ideas about their futures as their life aspirations begin to take shape,” said Neal Schiller, the senior associate dean for student affairs at the School of Medicine.

Read more

School has received nearly $21M from First 5 LA for dental programs.

James Crall, UCLA

The UCLA School of Dentistry has been awarded funding of more than $11 million from the Los Angeles–based child advocacy and grant-making organization First 5 LA to expand access to dental care in Los Angeles.

The funds will establish the UCLA–First 5 LA Children’s Dental Care Program (CDCP), which will support the delivery of care to children, from birth to age 5, and pregnant women over the next five years. The program will be especially beneficial to those in underserved communities, who are at high risk for dental disease, school officials said.

This new award comes on the heels of the $9.23 million that First 5 LA awarded to the dental school last year, bringing the total amount the school has received from the organization to nearly $21 million over the past 12 months.

“Our goal, over the next five years, is to develop an integrated health care delivery system that will provide quality, ongoing dental care to underserved young children and pregnant women in Los Angeles communities,” said Dr. James J. Crall, project director of the CDCP. “We hope the Children’s Dental Care Program will serve as a prototype for transforming the oral health care system for young children throughout Los Angeles County and beyond.”

As part of the new program, UCLA faculty members hope to gain a better understanding of the barriers that limit the use of dental care services by underserved groups in order to initiate improvements in care.

“While focusing on dental care for young children, the program is also targeting pregnant women in an effort to provide them with the information and education they need to be able to provide a more positive and healthier approach to oral health for their developing children,” Crall said.

Read more

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and Salk, Sanford-Burnham institutes collaborate.

Scott Lippman, UC San Diego

San Diego is a powerhouse for cancer research, home to the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center – the region’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center – and two NCI-designated centers for basic research: the Salk Institute Cancer Center and the Cancer Center at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

These singular enterprises have now formed a novel collaboration – the San Diego National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers Council, or C3 – to leverage their distinct and combined resources and talents.

The NCI designation means these three cancer centers are already among the best in the nation. They are moving forward with a formalized structure to facilitate collaborations in key areas. This new partnership will allow San Diego’s cancer researchers to accelerate the understanding of and innovative treatments for cancer, the nation’s second leading cause of death.

“San Diego’s cancer centers are rapidly unlocking the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer and are in the vanguard of a new era in cancer science,” said Tony Hunter, Ph.D., director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center and American Cancer Society professor. “The C3 partnership will allow us to build on the city’s foundation of groundbreaking cancer research and harness our collective strengths to produce the next generation of therapies.”

“The mission of C3 is to both exploit and create collaborative opportunities that can only happen in a place like San Diego, with so many exceptional cancer scientists and physicians,” said Scott Lippman, M.D., director of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and Chugai Pharmaceutical Chair in Cancer Research. “Our goal is to build a structure for increased interaction among the cancer center faculties, leading to a deeper understanding of cancer and, ultimately, more and better treatments.”

“We are in the midst of a transformative decade in cancer research – one in which we have tools like whole-genome sequencing, high-throughput drug screening and nanotechnology to personalize cancer treatments, delivering medicines where they’ll do the most good and the least harm. This new partnership will better position all San Diego cancer researchers to get there faster,” said Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Sanford-Burnham’s president, interim CEO and Cancer Center director.

Among C3’s goals:

• Greater interaction between the cancer centers — clinical, translational, basic science and educational — with increased joint faculty appointments.
• Enhanced collaborative research efforts, with members sharing resources in such areas as bioinformatics, genomics, clinical trials (at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center) and data storage.
• Organized initiatives, such as symposia, conferences and forums, that expand and deepen scientific and public understanding of cancer and advance the field.

Voting members of C3 are:

• Scott Lippman, M.D., director and Chugai Pharmaceutical Chair, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center; senior associate dean and assistant vice chancellor for cancer research and care, UC San Diego
• Tony Hunter, Ph.D., director, Salk Institute Cancer Center, American Cancer Society professor, Renato Dulbecco Chair
• Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., president and interim chief executive officer, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute; professor and director, NCI-designated Cancer Center
• Barbara Parker, M.D., professor of clinical medicine, UCSD School of Medicine; deputy director for clinical affairs, UCSD Moores Cancer Center
• David Cheresh, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Pathology, UCSD School of Medicine; associate director for innovation and industry relations, UCSD Moores Cancer Center
• Geoffrey Wahl, Ph.D., professor and Daniel and Martina Lewis Chair, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
• Ze’ev Ronai, Ph.D., professor and associate director, NCI-designated Cancer Center, scientific director at La Jolla, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

C3 will host regular meetings, with council chairmanship rotating every two years among the three cancer centers. Two previously established symposia — the Mahajani Symposium and the Preuss Foundation Seminar — will be sponsored by C3, as well as an annual retreat and an awards program to honor the best in local cancer science.

Read more

Safeway’s pharmacists will be trained in proven smoking-cessation counseling techniques.

B. Joseph Guglielmo Jr., UC San Francisco

The UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy has partnered with Safeway Inc. to help Safeway customers quit smoking, by connecting them with specially trained pharmacists to learn about smoking-cessation programs and other resources.

Under the partnership, Safeway’s pharmacists will be trained in proven smoking-cessation counseling techniques using a program developed by the UCSF pharmacy faculty. The stores also will locate non-prescription, nicotine-replacement therapies near store pharmacy areas, giving customers convenient access to a pharmacist to answer questions. The partnership is designed to give Safeway customers access, in a community setting, to the patient-care expertise of the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

The school, which has the nation’s top-ranked pharmacy degree program, pioneered the field of clinical pharmacy in the 1960s to provide direct interactions between hospital patients and pharmacists.

“Pharmacists are often the most accessible health care provider for patients within their own communities, but we haven’t maximized their expertise in that setting,” said B. Joseph Guglielmo Jr., Pharm.D., interim dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. “This project offers Safeway customers the full patient-care skill set of pharmacists with a goal of helping customers prevent and manage their chronic medical conditions.”

The project initially will focus on 20 pharmacy stores in Northern and Southern California and will expand throughout 2013 to include hundreds of Safeway pharmacies across the country.

“We are proud to partner with the UCSF School of Pharmacy on this effort to help our customers quit smoking and live healthier lives,” said Darren Singer, Safeway senior vice president for pharmacy, health & wellness. “Our pharmacists are, at all times, ready to help customers reach their health and wellness goals.”

This will be the first time a smoking cessation intervention has been applied systematically across a network of pharmacies, Singer said. Safeway sees this important new service as complementary to the ever-evolving range of patient-centered care offerings that Safeway pharmacies provide.

Read more

Free haircuts will help to make children’s wigs.

Around 200 Bruins and members of the UCLA community dropped by campus for free haircuts Thursday to donate more than 2,200 inches of their tresses to make children’s wigs.

The UCLA Alumni Scholars Club sponsored the fundraiser, partnering for the sixth year in a row with the nonprofit Locks of Love, which turns the hair into wigs for children who have lost their hair due to illness. Long-locked Bruins with 10 or more inches to spare donated their hair with the help of supervised student stylists from the Vidal Sassoon Academy and the Aveda Institute.

This same event last year resulted in more than 2,000 inches of donated hair, making it the single largest Locks of Love university event in the country, said Addison Yang, director of marketing for the Alumni Scholars Club.

Jaclyn Valdez, a second-year UCLA student and Alumni Scholar, donated in honor of her childhood friend, Alyssa, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in the 5th grade and underwent treatment until she passed away at the age of 15. Friday marks the third anniversary of her passing.

“Alyssa was one of the most incredible people I have ever met,” Valdez said. “Despite losing her hair and enduring chemo and radiation treatments, she was always one of the happiest people I’ve known. … I am donating in honor of Alyssa because I believe that it is something that she would have done if she had had the chance.”

View original article

Three-year grant will support hospital playroom’s staffing and services.

Barry Bonds spent time with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital patients in the hospital’s renovated Barry Bonds Family Foundation Playroom during a surprise visit in 2011.

Home run king Barry Bonds has pledged to continue his support of the UC San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital with a three-year grant through his Barry Bonds Family Foundation.

“This is a special place full of special people, and I am honored to have been a witness to the extraordinary dedication put forth every day by the staff, doctors and nurses,” said Bonds. “I am simply blessed to have the opportunity through my family foundation, to be able to provide monetary and moral support towards the hospital’s efforts to make a child’s stay a little more comfortable.”

Bonds’ formal relationship with UCSF began in 2007 – the same year he made history, setting a new Major League Baseball home run record with the San Francisco Giants. In 2009, the seven-time MVP donated nearly $250,000 for a much-needed renovation of the hospital’s playroom.

“Through the generosity of the Barry Bonds Family Foundation, we are able to provide a space for our pediatric patients of all ages to play, relax and socialize in a stress-free environment,” said Kimberly Scurr, executive director of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. “It’s so important for us to normalize the hospital experience, and the playroom provides an outlet for them to just be kids.”

Bonds’ latest donation will support the playroom’s staffing and services. The room, which is stocked with toys, puzzles, books and craft materials, is staffed by the hospital’s child life specialists and trained volunteers. It is also staffed by the hospital’s full-time service dog Nilani, who eases patients’ anxiety and stress by letting them rub her tummy, giving a quick snuggle or just sitting nearby.

The playroom is just one of the services offered by the Child Life Department at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Child life specialists help children and families adjust to and understand illness and treatment through outlets such as music therapy, therapeutic clowning, poetry and journal writing and art therapy. Credentialed teachers also provide instruction to school-age children in the school room or at bedside.

“Over the years, I have spent many hours visiting with patients at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital,” said Bonds. “The children and parents I have met during my visits have always been filled with optimism and courage. On so many occasions I have drawn strength and inspiration from their courage.”

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital creates an environment where children and their families find compassionate care at the forefront of scientific discovery, with more than 150 experts in 50 medical specialties serving patients throughout Northern California and beyond. The hospital admits about 5,000 children each year, including 2,000 babies born in the hospital.

View original article

Mission Bay celebrates a decade of discovery.

A decade after opening its first research building at San Francisco’s Mission Bay, UCSF has far surpassed its ambitious vision for a campus that today is an epicenter for science, health and hope.

This year, UCSF celebrates a decade of discovery at Mission Bay – a milestone that represents both a scientific renaissance and a significant revitalization of a once-blighted area in San Francisco’s southeast sector.

Since breaking ground in 1999, the development of the $3 billion Mission Bay campus is considered the single most important endeavor that UCSF has undertaken in its nearly 150-year history.

It is a spectacular success story in San Francisco, the “city that knows how” to get things done. It is the largest development in the city, second only to the construction of Golden Gate Park. And it is one of the nation’s largest university expansions.

UCSF Mission Bay exemplifies the University’s ongoing quest to explore, examine and ultimately answer some of the most awe-inspiring and vexing questions of human health.

Read more

Related links:

• Decade of discovery at UCSF Mission Bay
• City, UCSF celebrate 10 years of discovery, development at Mission Bay
• Scientific community at Mission Bay fosters research breakthroughs
• On Mission Bay’s 10th anniversary, hospital construction surges forward
• New innovators thrive at UCSF Mission Bay
• Slideshow: UCSF milestones at Mission Bay
• Slideshow: UCSF art and architecture at Mission Bay
• Video: Watch the Mission Bay celebration livestream
• Mission Bay by the numbers
• What’s your hope for the next 10 years in science?

UC Davis partners with the Salvation Army and The Effort on Interim Care Program.

The Interim Care Program serves people who lack housing and who are well enough for hospital discharge, but who still need a safe, supportive space for recuperation.

Being hospitalized for a significant injury or illness can change one’s life. Homeless patients face particular challenges. Those who lack family and financial support must surmount not only immediate health care circumstances, but inordinate uncertainties in managing their recovery and restoration of health.

Imagine a trauma patient living in an unsafe place after losing his job and home; a woman who is critically injured while escaping a violent relationship and has no home to which she can safely return; or a man left newly homeless but spending hundreds of dollars on medication. Individuals like these have received support for their recovery and their futures through the Interim Care Program (ICP), a respite-care program offered through a collaboration among UC Davis Health System, other regional health systems, the Salvation Army and The Effort, a federally qualified health care center.

Founded in 2005 and located at the Salvation Army shelter’s facility in downtown Sacramento, the Interim Care Program serves people who lack housing and who are well enough for hospital discharge, but still need a safe, supportive space for recuperation. The program, which incorporates evidence-based best practices, is one of only a few of its kind in the nation.

“The Interim Care Program is a tremendous benefit for all involved,” said Patsy Bethards, manager of the Department of Clinical Case Management at UC Davis Medical Center. “Patients without a home at discharge appreciate the supportive environment where they can be off the street while recovering from their illnesses and injuries.”

Hospitals benefit, she added, by having a safe place to locate patients who need an environment for continued healing but not the specialized care of an acute-care facility. The community benefits from reducing the number of people with medical problems on the streets.

The Interim Care program allows a stay for up to six weeks and works with them to find housing. The program has made more than 800 placement referrals since it opened in 2005, with about 45 percent of the referrals from UC Davis Medical Center.

The comprehensive process helps decrease homelessness, hospital stays, emergency department visits and hospital readmissions which often occur when follow-up is inadequate.

A study of the Interim Care Program indicated that more than 80 percent of the program’s clients were able to move from the program into housing – whether transitional housing, shelter, board and care housing, or permanent supportive housing.

View original article