January 11, 2022 | California, United States | By Hillary Ange, Loma Linda University News
Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium has been awarded more than US$3.5 million by Physicians for a Healthy California (formerly the California Medical Association Foundation) — the highest amount received this cycle from CalMedForce to support medical training, expand residency programs, and grow the physician workforce in San Bernardino and Riverside counties in California, United States.
“This funding allows Loma Linda University Health to accept 20 additional residency positions to serve the needs of medically underserved groups across our communities,” Daniel Giang, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education (GME) at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, said. “A special thanks goes to California Medical Association and San Bernardino County Medical Society for selecting our GME programs as funding recipients as we train resident physicians that will serve our area for many years to come.”
Loma Linda University Health residency programs that will receive this funding include family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology.
Since 2016, Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium has received nearly US$13 million through CalMedForce grants to support resident physicians who stay and serve the growing region.
“We are so proud to be able to award this funding of US$3.5 million on behalf of the California Medical Association and our local medical society. We applaud Loma Linda University Health’s commitment to prioritize the retention of physicians in the [region],” Kristina Roloff, president of the San Bernardino County Medical Society, said. “We value our partnership and will continue to work together to ultimately expand access to patient care at all levels.”
This is the fourth round of funding from CalMedForce, which is generated by the voter-approved Proposition 56 tobacco tax (2016) and administered by Physicians for a Healthy California (PHC), formerly the California Medical Association Foundation, and supports 214 residency positions in 114 GME programs at hospitals and clinics throughout California. This cycle marks the largest applicant pool to date, with 125 applications requesting more than US$99.5 million in funding to support 558 resident positions.
The California Future Health Workforce Commission estimatedthat California will need 4,700 additional primary care clinicians by 2025, and approximately 4,100 more by 2030 to meet demand. PHC, in partnership with the University of California (UC), established the CalMedForce grant program to help address California’s looming physician shortage by supporting the residency programs where medical school graduates must continue training to obtain a medical license and care for patients independently.
Currently, there are more than 900 residents and fellows training in more than 60 accredited training programs at Loma Linda University Health. Most of these physicians and dentists will practice in the region and throughout California.
The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.