Part 1: The Backstory by Dr. Arthur Gomez, Senior Associate Dean, CDU 4-Year Medical Program( continued)
Medical Education program which has consistently added 20-30 students to the class at UCLA for the past 40 years. Now, this year, CDU’ s own College of Medicine spearheaded by Founding Dean Deborah Prothrow Stith, Associate Dean Regina Offodile, and Assistant Dean of Admissions Dr. Margarita Loeza have materially added to opportunities for Black and Brown physicians to bring to fruition the aspirations of a community in need that are more than a half-century in fulfillment.
Nevertheless, the numbers of Latino physician trainees in California and nationwide has waxed and waned, usually succumbing the ever-present counteroffensives from proponents of reverse discrimination claims, that at any time causes us to be vigilant lest, once again, we may be on the verge of another stumble. In California, Latinos represent 40 % of the population, yet only 11 % of medical school graduates.
Dr. David Hayes Bautista has recommended 6 strategies to accomplish a sustained enrollment system:
1. Increase Medical School Admissions for Latinos Description: Expand enrollment in existing California medical schools, including private institutions, and increase the admission of students with community college transfer and CSU backgrounds--- institutions severely under-represented in the state’ s medical school admissions process.
2. Retain Latino Md Graduates Who Attend Out-of-State Medical Schools Description: Incentivize out-of-state MD graduates with meaningful loan repayment programs if they commit to primary care practice in California for at least 5 years. Once proven successful, additional incentives can be integrated for underserved regions.
3. Develop K-12 Pathway Programs Description: Implement programs within the primary and secondary education system that propel Latino students to pursue a career in healthcare and equip them with the skills needed to succeed; such as what we at CDU are doing with our Saturday Science Program.
4. Expand the Number of International Medical Graduates Practicing in California Description: This is the most controversial of Dr. Hayes-Bautista’ s proposals, as it sets up unnecessary competition within our community and is seen by some as an evasion or workaround that ignores the need to support our own home-grown training and support pathways that increases the chances for a cadre of cultural competency expertise as developed among the newly minted, locally trained Latino physicians. The idea is to recruit students trained as physicians in Latin American countries so they can meet the needs of medically underserved areas with high Latino populations( e. g., the Central Valley and Inland Empire).
5. Expand California MD Programs Description: This is where our own CDU 4-Year MD Program is key. The proposal is to expand California MD programs to emphasize primary medical care for underserved communities in the form of new medical schools such as our own, including rural MD schools and / or MD programs developed within the California State University system.
6. Increase the Number of California Residency Slots Description: The CDU 4-Year MD Program’ s priority is to grow and expand our homegrown residency programs, by increasing the number of California primary care residency slots. This will. Be accomplished by expanding training opportunities in state hospitals and community clinics within medically and linguistically underserved communities.
Barriers Given the ambitious nature of our aspirations to establish a corpus of sustainable health care for underserved populations, it was seen as an ambitious dream by many mainstream decision makers and thought leaders. Barriers are related in large part to the pathways to a career in medicine for students from deteriorating school systems because of tax reductions again in the 1980s. It all started with proposition 13 in 1975 limiting the property tax rate to 1 percent plus the rate necessary to fund local voter-approved bonded indebtedness, and limited future property tax increases to a maximum of 2 % per year.
In an action plan such as this, there are many approaches put forward by people committed to such an important community need. There are a few individuals who emerged during this evolutionary process, who have done much to promote our cause in recent years.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 9