Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 83

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first class of six medical students in June
2017. All six went into primary care res-
idency programs with Kaiser. The pro-
gram has now increased enrollment to
eight students per year.
While doctors trained at UC Da-
vis Medical School practice all over the
world, one-third of its students do stay
at UC Davis for their residency program
and roughly 60 percent of the residency
graduates stay in the local area to prac-
tice. With the new ACE-PC program, Ser-
vis is hoping more primary care doctors
will choose the Capital Region as their
personal and professional home as well.
To forecast the needs for the local re-
gion, health care providers rely on their
electronic health records to provide ro-
bust data on demographics and disease
patterns. They also rely on research and
national data from industry organizations
like the American Medical Association
and the California Medical Association.
“We look at not only our own internal
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encounter data, but we are also look-
ing at some comparisons and research
from around the world,” says Rodriguez.
“We are really doing that predictive
analysis, as well as future trends and
innovation hunting.”
Highly accessed specialties in the
region include orthopedics, sports med-
icine, ophthalmology and endocrinology.
Sutter Health also handles a significant
number of cases in the neurosciences
and in maternal, fetal medicine. In 2015,
Sutter Health delivered 23 percent of the
babies born in the 21 Northern California
counties it serves.
With the advent of digital health re-
cords, robust encounter data and sophis-
ticated technology tools, specialization is
here to stay — but the way it’s accessed
is changing. The arrival of digital infor-
mation and the ability to share that effec-
tively has simplified access, so that a pro-
vider’s service area doesn’t necessarily
need to be a geographic area. Health care
providers now offer electronic referrals
and telemedicine options to help stream-
line the process, which may reduce the
number of specialists and subspecialists
that need training in the future.
“The challenge for medicine is to bal-
ance the effort involving specialization
within medicine, with the essential need
to still have primary care physicians who
are doing bread and butter medicine and
coordinating for their patients,” says Ser-
vis. “I think we somehow have to hold on
to both and that’s a challenge for us as a
profession, but very important.” n
Laurie Lauletta-Boshart is a contributing writer
and editor for consumer publications, Fortune
500 companies, small business and higher
education. She has written for Dwell, ESPN,
Wall Street Journal, SI.com (Sports Illus-
trated) and others. On Twitter @laurieboshart
or www.wordplaycommunications.com.
ALEJANDRO GUGLIUCCI, MD, PHD, RESEARCHER
Helping to unravel the role of nutrition in the
epidemics of diabetes and heart disease.
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December 2017 | comstocksmag.com
83