The University of California Davis School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of California, Davis. While the parent institution is located in Davis, California, the medical school and its associated teaching hospital are located 17 miles (27 kilometers) east in Sacramento, California.

The original plans for the school were derailed by the 1960s Berkeley protests, which caused the state electorate to refuse to allow the state to sell bonds to raise money for construction of a medical school building and a teaching hospital at the Davis campus. The temporary solution of using the county hospital in Sacramento became a permanent one when UC agreed to buy the hospital in 1972, and it is now known as UC Davis Medical Center. A medical school building finally opened at Davis in 1977, after years in temporary structures. In 2006, teaching and clinical functions were transferred to a new building in Sacramento, leaving the basic science research departments at Davis.

History

Founding of the school

In 1960, a committee commissioned by the governor to study the provision of healthcare services in California found that the state should be graduating about 1,300 new doctors per year but at the time was graduating less than 700. The committee recommended the creation of additional state-supported medical schools in order to maintain a healthy ratio of about 175 physicians to every 100,000 people.

Dean Tupper formally assumed office on February 1, 1966. The first class of 48 students entered in the fall of 1968.

From crisis to crisis

The original plans for the medical school were ambitious and were never realized.

Without the state bond money it had been counting on, Davis was the financially weakest of the three new UC medical schools. On July 29, 1970, he persuaded the faculty to vote to double the size of each entering class from 52 to 100, contingent on obtaining a federal grant to pay for that expansion, and then secured a $5 million federal grant in March 1971.

The location problem: Sacramento versus Davis

After a vigorous campaign to educate voters on why UC needed the money, the electorate approved the 1972 bond issue, which included money for the long-delayed Medical Sciences I (MS I) building in the southwest corner of the Davis campus. With the December 2006 opening of its new Education Building, the school transitioned all medical school classes to the Sacramento campus. Classes are also held in the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology, which connects to the Education Building. Throughout their four years of medical school, students also take part in health care simulations at the UC Davis Health Center for Simulation and Education Enhancement, which is on the third floor of the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology building. Research activities continue in the same capacity at both the Davis and Sacramento campuses.

Admissions and ranking

thumb|UC Davis Medical Center

Admissions is highly competitive. In 2011, the school received 4,792 applications, offered interviews to 460 applicants of which 100 matriculated. The acceptance rate for applicants to UC Davis School of Medicine is approximately 1.8%. For 2019, U.S. News & World Report ranks UC Davis School of Medicine #9 based on primary care methodology and #30 based on research methodology.

Hospitals

UC Davis Medical Center, located in Sacramento, is one of five teaching hospitals in the University of California system. It ranks among the top 50 hospitals in America, according to an annual survey published by U.S. News & World Report. Other hospitals affiliated with UC Davis school of medicine include:

  • UC Davis Children's Hospital
  • UC Davis Cancer Center
  • Shriners Hospitals for Children – Sacramento
  • Sacramento VA Medical Center
  • Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers in Sacramento, Roseville, and South Sacramento

Research

Faculty in the School of Medicine specializes in a wide range of basic and applied research, including those related to neuroscience, cancer biology, vascular biology, genetic diseases and functional genomics, health services, infectious diseases, nutrition, telemedicine, and vision science. The school receives approximately $90 million in NIH funding annually. About half of UC Davis medical students conduct research during their training.

Primary care network

The UC Davis Medical Center operates a network of clinics that provides outpatient medical services to members of the HMO that UC Davis operates. These clinics are staffed by UC Davis medical school faculty and also by staff physicians hired directly by the primary care network (PCN).

Student clinics

thumb|Virtual Hallucinations - A project of the UC Davis Health System using [[Second Life to educate about hallucinations.]]

UC Davis School of Medicine has student-run clinics, which offers free primary care to the uninsured, low-income and other underserved population of Sacramento and surrounding areas. These clinics provide patients quality health care and allow UC Davis medical students to gain real world clinical experience during the early stages of their training.

  • Shifa Community Clinic
  • Clinica Tepati
  • Knights Landing Clinic
  • Imani Clinic at Oak Park
  • Joan Viteri Memorial Clinic
  • Paul Hom Asian Clinic
  • Bayanihan Clinic
  • Willow Clinic
  • VN CARES (Vietnamese Cancer Awareness Research and Education Society)
  • HMong Lifting Underserved Barriers (H.L.U.B.) Clinic

See also

  • List of medical schools in the United States

References

  • UC Davis School of Medicine on the DavisWiki