Jody Murray, UC Merced
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这是周二晚上的破土动工,所以有铲子. Many shovels. Full sized, posterized, miniaturized (in a gift box). 这一切都标志着正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校医学教育中心的一个标志性转折.
The tools also evoke something Dr. Kenny Banh said nearly a year ago. A top administrator at UC San Francisco's Fresno campus, he was talking about San Joaquin Valley PRIME, 这是一个为来自中央山谷的学生从事医疗事业做准备的项目. Training included at least a year in the Bay Area.
“With SJV PRIME, 我们会把硅谷的优秀学生带到旧金山进行培训," said Banh, assistant dean for undergraduate medical education. "That’s not growing your own garden.”
计划于2026年开放的医学教育大楼将举办该大学的本科阶段 SJV PRIME+ program该项目涵盖了正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校和正规欧洲杯买球网站旧金山分校弗雷斯诺分校多年的本科和医学院培训.
“SJV PRIME+是关于把孩子从你的后院带走,让他们留在你的后院,”Banh说. “It’s called building a community.”
留在硅谷的医疗培训是SJV PRIME+的一个支柱. The other is just as important, 被该项目录取的学生必须表达在硅谷行医的意愿, 从而提高急需保健服务的区域的保健质量.
Due to numerous socio-economic and cultural pressures, access to health care is a struggle in the Valley. The region has 130 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 191 per 100,000 in all of California, 根据研究生医学教育委员会2020年的一项研究.
该研究还关注了所谓的卫生专业人员短缺地区. Examples of an HPSA include low-income communities, homeless populations and groups of migrant farmworkers. 在加州,28%的人口生活在HPSA中. In the Valley, the number soars to 92 percent.
“我们都知道这些数字,以及我们是如何得不到充分服务的, 所以这所位于中央山谷的校园为我们提供了教育机会,也为我们提供了医疗机会,这真是太好了,” said Jack Garamendi, a member of the UC Merced Board of Trustees.
正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校的长期捐助者弗雷德·鲁伊斯从9岁起就住在硅谷. 他看到了医疗保健方面的差距,特别是在服务不足的农村社区.
“引进一个地方,我们可以培养医生,然后他们可以出去服务他们的社区……这太棒了,” he said. “This is the beginning of something really special.”
医学教育大楼将容纳比大学所谓的B.S.-to-M.D. program. It also will be home to UC Merced’s Health Sciences Research Institute, 公共卫生系和心理科学系, 以及其他与地区社区学院合作开发的联合医疗保健项目. 简而言之,这是正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校对社区服务的全面承诺.
“正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校的使命是在健康方面对该地区的经济产生重大影响,减少健康差距, increasing access to care and health professionals,” public health Professor Nancy Burke said. “Also, we have faculty, 研究生和博士后研究社会问题, 影响健康的政治和文化结构. It’s pretty unique.”
Dr. Marisela Rangel-Garcia, 他是弗雷斯诺胃肠病学家,也是最初SJV PRIME计划的首批学生之一, has a unique point of view of that mission.
“As a freshman at UC Merced back in 2005, 我不确定我想做什么,但在受到这里很多人的影响之后, I decided to pursue medicine. 我在默塞德仁慈医疗中心做志愿者时看到的病人给了我灵感,” Rangel-Garcia said.
“UC Merced has been a huge part of my journey. And now as I return to the Valley, 我很高兴能在这里为病人服务,也很高兴看到中央山谷医学教育大楼的未来.”
“第七”这个词在奠基仪式上不止一次出现. It referred to the six medical centers in the UC system. 总有一天——当然不会很快——正规欧洲杯买球网站默塞德分校会增加这个数字, 这座建筑和里面的项目标志着这个方向的巨大飞跃.
“We have 5 million people in the San Joaquin Valley. If we were a state, we’d be the 27th largest in the country, and we’d be the largest without a medical school,” said state Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula. “作为一名急诊室医生,我在医疗保健第一线工作了10年. 我期待着援军的到来.”
在周二晚上的仪式上,乌云密布的黄昏降临,六把金铲子扎进了土里, 这不仅是庆祝这一刻的时刻,也是庆祝未来数月、数年乃至数十年的时刻.
“我们今晚所做的将会引发即将发生的事情, 30, 40, 50 years from now,执行副校长兼教务长贝齐·杜蒙特说, “这是一个拥有医疗保健的山谷,有能力建设自己和照顾加州其他地区的山谷.”