UCLA partners with Cal State Northridge to nurture students’ interest in science careers.

Sarah Imam, a Cal State Northridge student, is working in the stem cell research lab of Michael Teitell at UCLA .

Sarah Imam had her sights set on medical school until a unique program offered at Cal State University Northridge (CSUN) in partnership with the UCLA stem cell center steered her in a new direction.

A postdoctoral student at CSUN, Imam now envisions a future in science and medicine — with both a doctorate and medical degree — after spending time as a researcher in a laboratory at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Formed two years ago, the six-year partnership between UCLA and CSUN aims to offer a total of 10 CSUN students an eye-opening, mind-expanding opportunity to work in stem cell research labs under the mentorship of renowned stem cell scientists.

The CSUN-UCLA Bridges to Stem Cell Research program that helped realign her career goals is funded through the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s stem cell agency. By funding courses and research internships for undergraduates and masters-level students, CIRM seeks to train the next generation of stem cell scientists and laboratory technicians.

“It’s been amazing,” said Imam, 29, of North Hollywood. “I pinch myself every day that I get to go to UCLA and work in a lab. It’s a total immersion experience, which makes everything much easier to absorb.”

The Bridges students work full time in the labs and receive a monthly stipend of $2,500. The lab hosting the student receives $3,000 from CIRM, an amount matched by the UCLA Broad stem cell center, to pay for necessary research materials such as reagents, enzymes and other lab supplies. Bridges students also receive $2,000 to support their attendance at important stem cell conferences.

The stipend allows students to focus all of their attention on stem cell research. Participants are not allowed to hold other jobs, said Dr. Michael Teitell, a UCLA professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and pediatrics, a practicing physician and scientist who mentors Bridges students as well as helps coordinate the UCLA arm of the program.

“The goal is to train undergrads and master’s level students in stem cell biology,” said Teitell, who mentors Imam. “This provides an opportunity for students attending CSUN to work in top UCLA labs and get world-class exposure to stem cell science.”

Cindy Malone, an associate professor of biology at ULA, directs the program for CSUN. She characterizes Bridges as an “opportunity of a lifetime.

“The Bridges students are exposed to projects and experiences that we can’t provide to them here under any circumstances,” said Malone, who teaches and runs a lab at CSUN. “We don’t have the kind of research facilities or the resources that UCLA has. This program offers students the whole environment of being immersed in a research career.”

Students spend nine months to a year working in the UCLA stem cell labs. Once at UCLA, they’re paired with either a graduate or postdoctoral student who, with the guidance of the faculty mentor, helps them create and develop their own research project.

“It’s an intense commitment, and most of the students end up working a lot more than they thought they would,” Malone said. “The projects take on lives of their own and become all-consuming.”

That has proven true for Imam, who is studying the unique metabolic properties of stem cells, which are different than those of mature cells. She has found that the stem cell metabolism is very similar to cancer cell metabolism, and the conclusions she ultimately draws from her research may have implications for cancer research. She hopes to uncover an “Achilles heel” in cell metabolism that might one day prove to be a target for therapy.

“My experience in the Bridges program has changed my perspective,” she said. “I see research now as an indispensable element to medicine, and it’s exciting to think of a future contributing to solutions to challenging medical conditions.”

Immersed in the program, Imam attends weekly seminars that feature well-known scientists from other stem cell centers nationwide. She has also attended extramural symposia, where she has presented posters detailing her research project. In June, she’ll be traveling to Japan for the International Society of Stem Cell Research meeting, which draws top scientists from all over the world. She is hoping that an abstract of her research will be accepted.

Generally, Imam works seven days a week in Teitell’s lab, and her hours are flexible, planned around the experiments she needs to conduct for her research. Working long days is not unusual, she said.

“My experience has been consuming and an absolute pleasure,” Imam said. “I can’t believe a program like this really exists.”

Roonalika Wisidagama, 28, of Northridge, was in the first group of Bridges students to work in a UCLA stem cell laboratory. She worked as an undergraduate in Malone’s lab at CSUN and served as the lab manager. She recently was accepted in the doctoral program at the University of Utah and is currently completing her master’s thesis.

“It was definitely a very positive experience, very intense and I enjoyed every bit of it,” said Wisidagama, who has always wanted to be a scientist. “The Bridges program encouraged me, supported my goal to become a scientist and made me want to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees.”

She had been thinking about applying for positions in the biotech industry, but now may set her sights on a career at an academic medical center like UCLA because she found the experience so enriching.

Wisidagama, who also worked in Teitell’s lab, said she found her mentor to be very approachable and available.

“He’s incredibly busy, but his door is always open to you,” she said. “He knows how to talk science on multiple levels. I was an undergraduate when I went into his lab, and he knew not to overwhelm me at first. He was very good at giving me personal attention.”

Bridges officials currently are screening applicants to select the third round of students, who will start the program in the fall. In all, CIRM has given out 16 Bridges to Stem Cell Research Awards to state universities and community colleges across California.

And the program has succeeded in expanding UCLA’s workforce. Several program graduates are currently working in UCLA stem cell labs, Teitell said. Others have gone on to graduate school, medical school or applied for jobs in the biotech industry.

In addition to Teitell, UCLA stem cell scientists currently participating in the program include Dr. Owen Witte, the stem cell center director; Bennett Novitch; William Lowry; Dr. Hanna Mikkola; April Pyle; Jerry Zack; Dr. Brigitte Gomperts; Karen Lyons; and Dong Song An.

Community outreach program aims to boost graduation rates.

Stacy Wong and Matthew Dabit, both 18, and aspiring UC college students, participate in FRISCO Day at UCSF Mission Bay.

Heading off to college is almost always daunting, even for the most accomplished high school students. That’s why about 500 San Francisco seniors flocked to UCSF Mission Bay recently for something called FRISCO Day.

Friday Successful College Options Day, now in its second year, gives graduating students a sense of what lies ahead so that they’ll be better equipped to deal with the unknown, said Orlando Elizondo, director of the partnership between San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and UCSF.

The Mission Bay gathering, co-hosted by UCSF’s Student Academic Affairs and Community and Government Relations, was aimed at seniors who will be going to one of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses. Separate non-UC events are preparing students bound for City College, San Francisco State, colleges outside California or private colleges. The shared goal is the same: Lowering the college dropout rate.

“You can get information anywhere,” said Donald Woodson, deputy director of UCSF’s Center for Educational Partnerships. “But what about when you leave your friends and your family? Things that are internal. We wanted to make sure it hit home.”

It definitely did, judging by the reaction of students during and after the five-hour session on April 13, which covered financial aid, social/family transitions and academic competency. Woodson led them through the day with energy and spirit.

Overcoming life’s obstacles

Richard Carranza, then-deputy superintendent of SFUSD, described the obstacles he had faced in college. And a small group from UC Berkeley’s Student Life Advising Services spoke of potential hurdles in a way that struck a chord.

“It’s not real until you hear from someone who’s gone through it,” said Balboa High senior Jasmine Minato, who is a mix of Filipino, African American, Swedish and Japanese and worries about encountering culture shock at UC San Diego. “We were all so empowered by Ruben’s story.”

She was referring to Ruben Canedo, who will graduate from Cal with degrees in social welfare and ethnic studies and three job offers. Entertaining and charismatic, he had the room alternately laughing and close to tears as he talked about a life of ups and downs.

Canedo was born in Mexico and later moved to Calexico, a border town. His mother was an undocumented immigrant and he went to a terrible high school. His tuition was covered but he worked four jobs his first year at Cal to help out his family — which had a household income of $13,000 a year — and barely slept. As a result, he flunked every course his first two semesters.

“That’s because I lost myself,” Canedo said. “… But all those struggles and challenges, were nothing compared to everything my ancestors had to go through way back when.”

Speakers make it clear that students will have to deal with all kinds of things: Navigating a financial aid thicket that includes grants, work/study, loans and scholarships; doing laundry, managing a budget, living with strangers and learning the difference between needs and wants; feeling like an impostor who doesn’t deserve to be at UC; and coping with much larger schools and an unprecedented level of academic rigor.

“I felt like I didn’t need anybody. After three months, you realize, ‘Wait a minute, maybe this isn’t as easy as I thought.’ I decided to turn off my hard-headed stubbornness,” said Jeanette Corona, a second-year Cal student who urged the seniors to seek out counselors and take advantage of the vast array of services UC offers.

Carranza — who was named San Francisco schools superintendent on April 24 — told the seniors that he, like many of them, was the first in his family to go to college. He’d ask himself why he was studying when friends who didn’t advance beyond high school were making lots of money in the Tucson mining industry, which collapsed during his sophomore year at the University of Arizona.

And suddenly, his pals’ new cars and trucks were parked on street corners with “for sale” signs. They lost their apartments and had to move back home with their parents. They were selling their fancy electronics gear.

“And I had a job. Better yet, I had a career, something I loved to do,” said Carranza, who noted that the difference between a high school and college degree is worth $1 million over the course of one’s work life.

Afterward, Alex Yu, a Burton High senior accepted at UC Santa Cruz and on the wait list at UC Davis, said being an intern at UCSF’s Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP) program last summer made him more confident about completing assignments and working with people, especially older ones. Still, he has concerns.

“I live with my mom and grandfather, and I’m an only child,” Yu said. “I’m family-oriented and I worry about the impact it will have on them when I’m gone.”

Second grant will let UC Irvine’s Health Education Center expand DUI awareness program.

California reported the largest decline in drunk-driving deaths of any state in the nation in 2010, according to recent statistics, and a $232,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety – through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – to UC Irvine’s Health Education Center is helping to keep the trend on track.

In partnership with the center’s RADD College DUI Awareness Program, UCI has organized nine universities into a consortium over the last two years to prevent and promote alternatives to drinking and driving. The new funding will allow UCI to add four more campuses to the effort this year.

At a recent student health event on Ring Mall, Satenik Melkumyan, a second-year biology major, said the program reminds students to be responsible for each other.

“When I was in high school, I knew someone who was in a car accident the night of senior prom because of drinking,” she said. “It could have been prevented if friends had just gotten more involved.”

First-year criminology major Chryssy Miranda noted that with spring break coming up, the RADD message is especially relevant. “It’s OK to have fun,” she said, “but let someone else drive you home.”

Doug Everhart, interim director and alcohol programs manager at UCI’s Health Education Center, says students are receptive to the RADD College DUI Awareness Program because it doesn’t tell them what not to do.

“Instead, we point out what they can do,” he says. “If they’re going out and choose to drink, they need to assign a designated driver, take a taxi, walk to the event, or have some other plan for getting there and back safely.”

The ideas are not a particularly hard sell at UCI. Nearly half the students don’t drink alcohol at all, surveys have found, and only a small percentage participate in high-risk behaviors. “We have a respectful culture here that’s receptive to these positive alternatives, which helps us maintain a safe campus community,” Everhart notes.

With its initial grant of $451,000 from the state Office of Traffic Safety – via the NHTSA – UCI engaged UC Davis, Cal State Sacramento, USC, Cal State Fullerton, San Diego State, UC San Diego, the University of San Diego and Cal State San Marcos in the program.

“We saw the San Diego region as a model,” says Kristin Mendoza, grants project coordinator at UCI’s Health Education Center, “because it had representation from a UC, the Cal State system and a private university. So this year we’re looking to replicate that by adding the University of the Pacific in the Sacramento area and UCLA and Cal State Northridge in the Los Angeles region.”

The private university in Orange County is still to be determined, and plans are in the works to expand the consortium to the Bay Area and Inland Empire in coming years.

The RADD College DUI Awareness Program uses a variety of tactics to get its message across. At UCI, the crew appears at campus events such as Shocktoberfest, Reggaefest and Wayzgoose and speaks to Greek leaders and athletic teams. Toyota Motorsales U.S.A., Inc. donated a graphics-wrapped 2012 Scion xB to RADD to help spread the word at UCI and other participating campuses.

The entertainment industry’s voice for road safety, RADD encourages bars and restaurants to provide free nonalcoholic drinks, appetizers and other incentives to designated drivers carrying a RADD card.

Recently, RADD’s efforts were lauded in an NHTSA report showing that drunk-driving deaths in California had declined from 950 in 2009 to a record low of 791 in 2010.

UCSF and SF General are both major training grounds for doctors who specialize in HIV/AIDS, and numerous research collaborations exist across the Bay Bridge.

At two of the largest hospitals near downtown Oakland, doctors have heard the same story so many times from young African-American men undergoing treatment for HIV/AIDS that they practically know it by heart.

They felt ostracized during their teen years. They first explored their sexual identities in secret. Their earliest encounters were covert trysts. But after a while, they found what they thought to be true love and acceptance in the arms of a much older man—whom they later discovered exposed them to HIV.

All these stories point to one thing, said Kathleen Clanon, M.D., ACMC, an attending physician and the former chief of HIV services at Highland Hospital, part of the county medical center and one of the main facilities treating people with HIV/AIDS in Oakland. If the medical community is to effectively confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Oakland, she said, it needs to connect with communities like the one these young men belong to: a loose-knit, insular, hidden and particularly vulnerable group made up of individuals who may not know they are at high risk and may not be receiving the information they need to protect themselves.

“If we could really reach out to them effectively, we wouldn’t see new cases in Alameda County,” Clanon said.

The epidemic across the bay

In the Bay Area and the United States as a whole, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread, particularly in urban areas and within certain populations such as young African-American men.

With changes and cutbacks in health care funding looming, Oakland doctors are concerned they may not be able to adequately address their community’s needs.

For decades, the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) have led the medical establishment worldwide in patient care, professional training and research related to HIV/AIDS. Along with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the greater medical community in the city, UCSF has helped set the standard for care for this disease since the earliest days of the epidemic. UCSF and SFGH are both places where people with HIV/AIDS get some of the best care in the world.

[Related: In focus: HIV/AIDS in 2012, Trauma drives HIV epidemic in women, Video depicts women with HIV]

Just 10 miles away, across the Bay Bridge in Oakland, patients also receive excellent care – assuming they are diagnosed and linked to care. Many of them are not.

Doctors in Oakland describe a smoldering epidemic, growing larger every year, that is in some ways more hidden than the epidemic in San Francisco. Providing world-class care to patients there is only one part of the challenge. Finding people at high risk, getting them tested, helping them avoid the virus or linking them to care if they are already infected are also huge issues that contribute to the overall nature of AIDS in Oakland.

The city of Oakland is part of Alameda County, where an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 or more people live with HIV/AIDS, said Damon Francis, M.D., of the East Bay AIDS Center, one of the county’s major providers for people with HIV/AIDS. Francis was a chief resident at SFGH before doing a one-year fellowship at the East Bay AIDS Center and has been compiling statistics on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the East Bay.

His statistics show that the epidemic in Oakland closely follows national trends, with more infections appearing among women, people of color, and young people. Other urban centers in California face very different epidemics. San Francisco has a much larger gay population affected by the disease and Los Angeles has many more Latinos.

That only includes those diagnosed and counted. Francis adds that the lack of a centralized approach, added to the covert nature of homosexuality among some urban African-American men, makes it particularly difficult to know how many undiagnosed infections exist in Alameda County, which includes Oakland. “We know we’re undercounting, and we know the epidemic is getting worse,” he said.

Clanon estimates the actual number is closer to 9,000 people, with about 5,000 -6,000 in care at Highland Hospital, the East Bay AIDS Clinic Kaiser Permanente sites,  and at smaller clinics and private practices scattered across the county. The city and county of San Francisco, by comparison, has more than 15,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in a population about half the size of Alameda County.

Identifying the people who are not yet diagnosed is one of the keys to turning the tables on the epidemic. Yet, when these people are hard to identify, it is also one of the core challenges, especially when it comes to young men having sex with other men.

Traditional HIV prevention messages revolve around safe sex and are usually spread via health care providers. But healthy young men may not see themselves in need of health care unless they break a leg or have some other acute injury. As such, they may not access the system and are not likely to encounter traditional prevention messages in their daily lives.

Doctors in Oakland worry that their inability to reach such at-risk populations before they are exposed to the virus keeps the epidemic moving upward.

“We worry that not only do we not have the right preventive messages but we’re not giving them in the right places either,” said Jeff Burack, co-medical director of the East Bay AIDS Center.

According to Howard Edelstein, M.D., a doctor at the Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland who also specializes in HIV/AIDS care, somewhere between a third to half of the patients they see already have advanced AIDS when they come in for the first time. This makes their treatment more complicated because people with advanced AIDS are generally sicker and may have more co-infections and other complications.

Finding money for new prevention efforts is complicated by limited funds already split among organizations that represent the various affected populations.

HIV/AIDS funding: The question of Ryan White and Medi-Cal

The impending crisis over funding for HIV/AIDS in general creates a sense of urgency. Like many parts of the country, Oakland may be facing thinning resources just as its patient pool expands. For now, though, a major amount of financial support pours into the city from federal and state programs that help to pay for antiretroviral drugs and other services for people with HIV/AIDS.

The federal Ryan White Care Act alone provides about $7 million a year for the care of low-income people with the disease in Oakland, Clanon said. That money pays for doctors, social workers, nurses, support staff and numerous clinic programs. But most of all, it pays for drugs. The law enables people to begin taking drugs right away, often the same day they are diagnosed and even before they can document their income and residency requirements.

“It has been the cornerstone of care for poor people with HIV,” Clanon said. She estimates that two-thirds of the 1,200 patients undergoing treatment for HIV/AIDS at the county hospital are supported by this federal funding mechanism.

At the East Bay AIDS Center, which currently sees about 1,400 patients, Ryan White funding is the sole source of support for nearly 200 patients, including most of the 110 HIV-positive youth in care (ages 15-24).

Nationally, the Ryan White Act provides about $2 billion a year to hospitals and clinics across the United States. It is unclear what will happen to this funding after 2013, when the current authorization is due to expire. When this expiration loomed in the past, the Congress reauthorized the funding.  But in the current political and economic climate, no one is counting on that.

“The smart money, at the moment, is that it will either be greatly changed or will go away in 2013,” Clanon said.

Meanwhile, the patient population in Oakland continues to grow. In addition to the large caseload of existing patients, doctors at the East Bay AIDS Center added three or four additional patients per week last year. The county hospital is also adding hundreds of new cases annually.

Many of the patients in Oakland rely on state Medi-Cal funds, a health insurance program for low-income Californians that also faces an uncertain future. State cutbacks to Medi-Cal already have made it difficult for some patients to find specialized treatment because fewer and fewer doctors are accepting the public insurance.

“Try to find a urologist in the East Bay who takes Medi-Cal — there aren’t any,” Edelstein said. “Try to find an orthopedist who takes Medi-Cal – again, zero.”

A shared separation

Many of the people with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco are in the same situation as people in Oakland with respect to federal Ryan White funding and state Medi-Cal issues. Many also face the same complicating societal issues — homelessness, unemployment, poverty, food insecurity, drug addiction and so on.

“It is very heavily an epidemic of the disenfranchised,” Francis said.

In part because of such similarities, medical collaborations and other exchanges long have occurred on both sides of the Bay. UCSF and SFGH are both major training grounds for doctors who specialize in HIV/AIDS, and numerous research collaborations exist across the Bay Bridge as well.

Edelstein has participated in collaborations with UCSF researchers on a number of studies, including an ongoing trial called Intervention for those Recently Informed of Seropositive Status (IRISS), which looks at the effect of early psychiatric interventions for people with HIV and depression, a common reason why people with HIV/AIDS fail to adhere to their drug regimens.

Still, even if there is a strong sense of shared mission among doctors in San Francisco and in Oakland, differences remain. “We really don’t have anything close to what San Francisco has in terms of money and manpower to address HIV,” Francis said.

Clanon summed up the difference with a statement attributed to the Mexican politician Porfirio Diaz. President of Mexico for 40 years beginning in the 1870s, Diaz allegedly described his country using the phrase, “So far from God, so close to the United States.”

“That’s how I feel,” Clanon said.

March 31 event marks 15 years of healing San Diego’s underserved.

On Saturday, March 31, the UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Project will host its annual fundraiser and awards ceremony. The event will be held at the UC San Diego Price Center Ballroom on the La Jolla campus. Funds raised during this event help provide free medical, dental, pharmacy, acupuncture, legal and social services  to San Diego’s working poor and homeless. More than 2,000 San Diegans rely on its comprehensive integrative health services every year.

Ellen Beck, UC San Diego

“For more than 15 years, the UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Project has helped 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. “The patients we assist have fallen through the gaps in San Diego’s ragged safety net and cannot afford health insurance.”

The Student-Run Free Clinic Project is run by 200 UC San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences students under the supervision of 100 licensed professionals including physicians, pharmacists, dentists, lawyers and social workers. The project has four clinical sites throughout the region: Baker Elementary in Southeast San Diego, First Lutheran Church Downtown, Pacific Beach United Methodist Church, and Golden Avenue Elementary in Lemon Grove.

“Since our launch in 1997, we have had the support of incredible community partners, a passionate group of students and the blessing of the UC San Diego School of Medicine,” said Beck. “On our first night, in the basement of a church, we saw 10 patients. The number has grown and grown.”

Since its inception, more than 35,000 clinic visits have taken place offering transdisciplinary health care services, including specialty care for cardiovascular, ophthalmologic and psychiatric 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.

[Related: UC Health's community benefit tops $3B; video: UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Golden Avenue Elementary; video: UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Baker Elementary]

“It is important to point out that this is underserved medicine, not charity care,” said Beck. “For example, our dental services are not poverty dentistry where teeth are pulled, but restorative. We believe that toothlessness leads to joblessness, so we provide solutions like dentures that take care of the medical need and improve a person’s employment opportunities.”

The Student-Run Free Clinic Project serves as a model of care for other U.S. cities. The program runs an onsite Fellowship in Underserved Health Care, the first in the country. More than 140 faculty and health professionals have completed the national training and started more than 15 other student-run free clinic projects across the country.

“The medical students are taught a humanistic approach to care,” said Beck. “This is a mindset that they use every day and we hope will carry into their future medical practices. We teach them how to preserve their passion and sense of respect for all patients. All you have to do is see the students in action to know that they are exceptional in their approach.”

Beck said that the greatest challenge for the Student-Run Free Clinic Project is that operational expenses have increased while previously  available funding from federal and state sources have decreased. Beck estimates that the clinic provides the community an equivalent of $1.6 million in free medications, and several million in donated services.

“Many of the families who come to us are in crisis or on the verge of homelessness. Some are simply struggling financially and need help with basic health needs. We are here to serve all, but need the support of the community to do so.”

Beck is a recipient of the 2010 James Irvine Foundation Leadership award. She was recently honored as a WebMD Magazine 2011 Health Hero.

For more information on the fundraising dinner and award celebration on March 31, please call (858) 534-6160 or visit http://meded.ucsd.edu/freeclinic/benefit_dinner.php.

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.

Cancer Center partners with deVere’s Irish Pub, Sacramento Kings to promote St. Baldrick’s events.

Leslie Garcia (left) and Nicole Ekedahl, UC Davis

As a member of the clinical trials team at UC Davis Cancer Center, Leslie Garcia understands the value of cancer research and often donates to cancer charities. This year, however, she’s making that support much more public. She’ll shave her head.

Her sacrifice – and that of colleague Nicole Ekedahl – will be broadcast live to thousands  of Sacramento Kings fans at Power Balance Pavilion at the game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, March 1. The event will help promote St. Baldrick’s events throughout the region taking place in mid-March.

“I wanted to make a bigger statement that people can see long afterwards,” said Garcia, an analyst with the UC Davis Cancer Center clinical trials program. “When people ask why I’m bald, I can say, ‘Because I’m helping to find a cure for cancer.’”

Garcia is part of a cancer center team of 11 so far who have signed on to shave their heads and raise funds for pediatric cancer research through the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Garcia and Ekedhal’s cancer center teammates and about 100 others will have their heads shaved on Monday, March 12, at an official St. Baldrick’s head-shaving event at deVere’s Irish Pub in downtown Sacramento.

St. Baldrick’s is a national charity dedicated to supporting promising childhood cancer research. Sacramento St. Baldrick’s events are hosted and organized by the Keaton Raphael Memorial, a philanthropy named for the 5-year-old Roseville boy who died of neuroblastoma in 1998. The foundation and the memorial have raised millions to support pediatric cancer research and programs for families affected by childhood cancer, including those at UC Davis Cancer Center.

For instance, Paul Knoepfler, a UC Davis associate professor of cell biology and human anatomy, received a $100,000 St. Baldrick’s grant to investigate the molecular causes of brain tumors in children. And the memorial helped fund a play area for pediatric cancer patients in the UC Davis Cancer Center expansion, scheduled to open in July.

In addition to deVere’s in Sacramento, shave events will be held at the Westfield Galleria in Roseville on Saturday, March 10, and at deVere’s in Davis on Wednesday, March 14. Forty percent of the funds collected will benefit Sacramento-area pediatric cancer research.

Garcia has worked with cancer patients, including several family members, and she is especially sympathetic toward children who lose their hair during treatment. For youngsters, this can be one of the most difficult aspects of the illness.

“I want to let them know that it’s OK to be bald and make a lasting contribution to finding new treatments at the same time,” said Garcia.

Those who want to see Garcia and Ekedahl go bald when the Kings play the Clippers have access to specially priced tickets through www.kingsticketsave.com/GetBald. A portion of the ticket sales benefit St. Baldrick’s.

Fans can also order a St. Patrick’s Day T-shirt through their ticket confirmation e-mail and pick it up during the game at the deVere’s tent on the Power Balance Pavilion concourse, where they can also meet Garcia and Ekedahl and learn more about UC Davis Cancer Center research. A portion of the T-shirt proceeds will benefit St. Baldrick’s.

Direct donations to the UC Davis Cancer Center St. Baldrick’s team can be made by visiting the UC Davis Cancer Center team page.

UC Irvine wins second grant to expand DUI awareness program.

California reported the largest decline in drunk-driving deaths of any state in the nation in 2010, according to recent statistics, and a $232,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety — through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — to UC Irvine‘s Health Education Center is helping to keep the trend on track.

In partnership with the RADD College DUI Awareness Program, UC Irvine has organized nine universities into a consortium over the last two years to prevent and promote alternatives to drinking and driving. The new funding will allow UC Irvine to add four more campuses to the effort this year.

“Students are receptive to the program because we don’t tell them what not to do,” said Doug Everhart, interim director and alcohol programs manager at UC Irvine’s Health Education Center. “Instead, we point out what they can do. If they’re going out and choose to drink, they need to assign a designated driver, take a taxi, walk to the event, or have some other plan for getting there and back safely.”

The ideas are not a particularly hard sell at UC Irvine. Nearly half the students don’t drink alcohol at all, according to surveys, and only a small percentage participate in high-risk behaviors. “We have a respectful culture here that’s receptive to these positive alternatives, which helps us maintain a safe campus community,” Everhart said.

With its initial grant of $451,000, UC Irvine engaged UC Davis, Cal State Sacramento, USC, Cal State Fullerton, San Diego State, UC San Diego, the University of San Diego and Cal State San Marcos in the endeavor.

“We saw the San Diego region as a model,” said Kristin Mendoza, grants project coordinator at UC Irvine’s Health Education Center, “because it had representation from a UC, the Cal State system and a private university. So this year we’re looking to replicate that by adding the University of the Pacific in the Sacramento area and UCLA and Cal State Northridge in the Los Angeles region.”

The private university in Orange County is still to be determined, and plans are in the works to expand the consortium to the Bay Area and Inland Empire in coming years.

The RADD College DUI Awareness Program — funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — uses a variety of tactics to get its message across. At UC Irvine, the unit appears at campus events such as Shocktoberfest, Reggaefest and Wayzgoose and speaks to Greek leaders and athletic teams. Toyota donated a 2012 Scion xB wrapped with RADD graphics to help spread the word at UC Irvine and other participating campuses.

The entertainment industry’s voice for road safety, RADD encourages bars and restaurants to provide free nonalcoholic drinks, appetizers and other incentives to designated drivers carrying a RADD card. Participating businesses get free listings on regional websites and a RADD rewards card.

“UC Irvine and RADD have a unique insight into getting the impaired driving message to college students,” said Christopher J. Murphy, director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “The patterns set in these few short years will be with them the rest of their lives.”

Recently, RADD’s efforts were also lauded in an NHTSA report showing that DUI deaths in California had declined from 950 in 2009 to a record low of 791 in 2010.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UC Irvine is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with nearly 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,000 staff. Orange County’s second-largest employer, UC Irvine contributes an annual economic impact of $4 billion. For more news, visit www.today.uci.edu.

UCLA Health System, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital join with Motion Picture Television Fund on new facility.

The Motion Picture and Television Fund, the 90-year-old charity supporting members of Hollywood’s entertainment industry, today announced a first-of-its-kind affiliation with the UCLA Health System and UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital to establish a geriatric psychiatry unit at the MPTF’s Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills.

The unit, co-branded by the MPTF and UCLA, will provide inpatient and outpatient services to individuals 55 years and older with emotional or behavioral disorders. It will accommodate up to 12 patients and is anticipated to be fully operational, pending regulatory approvals, by the first quarter of 2013.

“This historic linkage with the UCLA Health System is another key piece in the larger strategy we have developed for our organization,” said the MPTF’s CEO Bob Beitcher. “Among our many goals, we are focused on building a health care campus capable of delivering a broad set of services to our industry members and, selectively, to the San Fernando Valley community.”

“UCLA feels privileged to contribute its world-class geriatric expertise to MPTF’s storied campus,” said Dr. David Feinberg, president of the UCLA Health System. “UCLA has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the entertainment community, and this new affiliation will be a welcome extension of that.”

The new unit’s medical director will hold a faculty position at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and will participate in the academic and research activities of the university. The MPTF will provide the unit’s clinical caregivers, and MPTF medical staff will collaborate with UCLA at the Wasserman Campus to integrate the practices of geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry for industry members. In connection with the MPTF’s social services program, there will also be a focus on the impact of psychiatric illness on caregivers and families.

“UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry is very pleased to be part of this extraordinary affiliation with MPTF,” said Dr. Thomas Strouse, director of the Resnick Neuropsychiatirc Hospital. “We will be bringing specialized faculty and our state-of-the-art geriatric psychiatry treatment program to the MPTF facility in Woodland Hills, and we look forward to a creative alliance that will also encompass wellness, prevention, and health-maintenance clinical research activities,” Strouse added.

The MPTF will make this new service available on a preferential basis to entertainment industry members, as well as to the community. The organization’s previously announced 40-bed long-term care unit and Harry’s Haven, its 30-bed dementia care unit, will remain exclusive to members of the entertainment community.

“The MPTF board is committed to management’s new health care roadmap, and we could not have a higher regard for Dr. David Feinberg, Dr. Gary Small, Dr. Thomas Strouse and the UCLA geriatric psychiatry program,” said Casey Wasserman, an MPTF board member. “UCLA and this team represent the best possible partner for MPTF as it moves into this new service.”

The Motion Picture and Television Fund has served for 90 years as a beacon of hope for entertainment industry members in their time of need. As a charitable organization, the MPTF provides financial assistance and services essential to the well-being of the community and is a leader in the development and implementation of services and programs for seniors and those who care for them. The charity is supported by the generosity of corporate donors and fellow entertainment industry members who contribute their time and money, knowing if they were ever in a tight spot, the MPTF would be there for them too.

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. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, and UCLA Medical Center-Santa Monica (which includes the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital) deliver 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.

UCLA assistant professor of nursing heads program to increase physical activity among Los Angeles youth.

Kynna Wright-Volel, UCLA

Funded by a $1.2 million grant, Kynna Wright-Volel, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., assistant professor and Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Faculty Scholar at the UCLA School of Nursing, and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are launching Project SHAPE LA, a coordinated school-health program to increase physical activity among youth in Los Angeles County schools.

Project SHAPE LA targets 24 middle schools in underserved areas of Los Angeles and will touch nearly 12,000 students.

“As a pediatric nurse practitioner, I see the health consequences when children are overweight or obese; however, the clinic visit is but one part of the solution,” said Wright-Volel. “Research shows that school-based programs that are supported by collaborations among universities, schools, businesses and parents can decrease obesity and obesity-related behavior. We believe that Project SHAPE LA will do just that!”

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, one in five children in the LAUSD are considered obese. Obesity during childhood has immediate consequences, including hypertension, high cholesterol and the development of metabolic syndrome, as well as psychosocial problems such as low self-esteem and poor body image. Childhood obesity, if left unchecked into adulthood, can lead to a variety of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer, including breast and colon.

“This is an important component of an overall strategy for improving the health and well-being of our community, which includes physical activity, improved nutrition and nutrition education, and health education,” said Rene Gonzalez, assistant superintendent of student health and human services for the LAUSD.

Engaging in regular physical activity is widely accepted as an effective preventative measure. Project SHAPE LA (Shaping Health for Adolescents through Physical/Nutrition Education Los Angeles) uses three components: SPARK PE, an evidence-based physical education program; educational training of PE teachers in the areas of nutrition, physical education, curriculum development and professional development; and up to $2,000 per year of PE equipment per school.

Anticipated outcomes from this program include:

• Increased moderate to vigorous physical activity.
• Increased scores on the California State Board of Education’s FitnessGram Test in the areas of aerobic fitness, body composition and muscular strength/endurance.
• Increased academic achievement, as evidenced by higher scores on California standardized tests.

“Support for our PE teachers is imperative at this crucial time in our state’s budgetary crisis,” said Chad Fenwick, LAUSD physical activity adviser.

The five-year grant will give approximately 85 PE teachers a monetary stipend and intense, evidence-based training in physical activity, nutrition and physical education curriculum.

The grant is jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Nursing Research and Office of Behavioral Social Science Research, both of which are committed to preventing disease and promoting the health of individuals, families and communities.

Another component of the grant supports the recruitment of 100 minority high school students a year. These students will be provided education and mentoring in the areas of obesity prevention, leadership and careers in health and allied health professions. This leadership program will be piloted at Belmont High School.

According to Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti (District 13), “This partnership with Belmont High School shows a strong commitment by Dr. Wright-Volel and the UCLA School of Nursing to the investment in our youth as they learn to be the next leaders of our city.”

“With this grant, we want PE teachers to ignite a passion for physical activity — to teach kids that by being active they can be healthy and achieve their dreams,” added Wright-Volel.

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. Rated among the nation’s top nursing schools by U.S. News & World Report, the school also is ranked No. 4 in nursing research funded by the National Institutes of Health and No. 1 in NIH stimulus funding. In 2009-10, the school received $18 million in total research grant funding and was awarded 26 faculty research grants. The school offers programs for undergraduate (B.S.), postgraduate (M.S.N. and M.E.C.N.) and doctoral (Ph.D.) students.

UC San Diego program has shown success in training health care, law enforcement.

Linda Hill, UC San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine TREDS (Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety) program has been awarded a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to continue its work on driving safety in older adults. This team of experts, part of UC San Diego’s Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center, has been working to keep San Diego County’s highways and senior drivers safe since 2007.

“Both health care and law enforcement can play an important role in the identification and referral of drivers who may be at risk for a collision,” said Linda Hill, M.D., M.P.H., clinical professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Physicians have knowledge of a patient’s medical history and the medications that can impact driving, while law enforcement witnesses and responds to unsafe driving first hand.”

Family members of older drivers often seek guidance from these professionals in an effort to keep their loved ones safe behind the wheel. TREDS educates health care providers on the American Medical Association’s screening guidelines that assess for vision, strength and cognitive impairment in adults over age 70. The focus of the law enforcement training is to increase recognition of medical conditions that can impact driving and referral resources.

“We have trained more than 1,000 health professionals and more than 700 law enforcement officers in Southern California counties. Now, these successful programs will benefit the most traffic-congested areas in the state, Los Angeles and Orange counties,” said Hill. “And soon health professionals throughout California will have the opportunity to receive the training online.”

Early identification of conditions is paramount to the continuation of safe driving. Treatment may be as simple as a new pair of glasses, some adaptive equipment for the car or physical therapy to improve range of motion. Training health care practitioners and law enforcement officials will better equip them to help older drivers maintain mobility for as long as safely possible.

“Older adults have positive driving attributes like experience, being more likely to follow laws and less likely to take risks; however, as a group, their rates of death per distance driven and per population is as high as that of teenage boys,” Raul Coimbra, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, chief of the Division of Trauma at UC San Diego Health System and founder of the UC San Diego Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center. “In addition, elderly drivers and their passengers are four times more likely to die than their 20-year-old counterparts in crashes of similar intensity.”

“The California Highway Patrol appreciates the training provided by the University of California, San Diego. This training has enabled our officers to better serve our older drivers by recognizing driving impairment and make referrals to community resources. We are grateful for the contributions senior drivers have made to our communities over the past decades and want to best serve them while they continue to enjoy their driving experiences,” said Chief Jim Abele of the California Highway Patrol.

“The goal of these programs is to improve driving safety in older adults by increasing awareness, education and management of the health-related impairments which result from the aging process,” explained Richard Kohr, senior driver ombudsman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles – Southern Region.

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The DMV Senior Ombudsman Program and the San Diego Driver Safety Office collaborated with and support UC San Diego’s efforts to engage health professionals and law enforcement in this endeavor.

The grant team, led by Hill, includes Coimbra; Jill Rybar, M.P.H, project manager; and Tara Styer, M.P.H., training coordinator. For additional information or to schedule trainings, email TREDS@ucsd.edu or call (858) 534-9330.

Background
The AARP states that beginning in 2011, 8,000 baby boomers will be turning 65 each day and these projections are expected to continue for the next 18 years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that by the year 2020, there will be more than 40 million licensed drivers over the age of 65, and 6 million drivers over 65 in California by the year 2030.

Older adults often experience a decline in cognition, vision and motor skills required to complete many tasks associated with driving. AAA reports that nearly 70 percent of older adults surveyed were using one or more prescription medications that could impair driving ability.

According to San Diego County, 1,408 individuals over 65 were involved in traffic crashes, accounting for 10 percent of all people injured and 16 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2008.

The Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center
The UC San Diego Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center is a combined effort of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Burns with its Level-1 Trauma Center and the Regional Burn Center and the UC San Diego Department of Preventive Medicine to make our communities safer and to decrease the burden of injuries to our society.