UCSF Fresno achieved new milestones and our faculty, trainees, learners, staff and partners, as always, demonstrated ongoing commitment to the communities we serve. Here is a look back at some of our shining moments in 2022 despite challenging times during the third year of the pandemic.
January
The matriculating Class of 2020, the second cohort admitted to UCSF SJV PRIME, began training at UCSF Fresno in January. SJV PRIME is a tailored track at the UCSF School of Medicine that aims to train students who are passionate about engaging with the community and working with diverse and underserved populations in the San Joaquin Valley.
February
In February, UCSF Fresno Mobile Health and Learning (Mobile HeaL) COVID-19 Equity Project began offering the monoclonal antibody therapy Evusheld to eligible patients with suppressed immune systems. Evusheld is a long-acting antibody combination for pre-exposure prevention of COVID-19. Unlike other monoclonal antibody therapies, Evusheld is not a treatment for active COVID-19. It is not given to anyone who is currently infected or who has been exposed to a person infected with COVID-19 nor is it a substitute for vaccines.
Feb. 25 was national Thank a Resident Day. In recognition of their commitment and dedication to patients, colleagues, UCSF Fresno and the larger community, UCSF Fresno held a Resident/Fellow Appreciation Day. Nearly 200 residents and fellows attended and were treated to massages and a gift. Thank a Resident Day was started in 2018 by the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
To increase awareness and improve heart health among women of all ages, UCSF Fresno hosted the Women’s Heart Fair at Home on Feb. 26. This year’s Women’s Heart Fair was a virtual version and represented the seventh annual community event. Over 200 people took part online. In addition to hearing from experts in heart health, participants joined in a yoga class and guided meditation. Dr. Teresa Daniele, MD, FACC, chief of cardiology, UCSF Fresno, was the program director.
March
UCSF Fresno filled all available residency positions for the 16th year in a row on Match Day on March 18. Match Day takes place every year in March and is the time when graduating medical students across the United States, including students in the SJV PRIME, receive emails simultaneously that reveal where they will spend the next several years conducting the graduate medical education (residency) necessary to practice medicine in the U.S. It’s also the day when residency programs like UCSF Fresno learn the identities of the first-year residents or interns who will join their training programs. Six SJV PRIME medical students pursued residency programs this year. All six of the SJV PRIME students stayed in California for residency training and to provide much needed care. Four stayed in the Central Valley with one matching with UCSF Fresno’s Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
The Third Annual Autism Symposium for Primary Care Providers was held online on March 26. Led by foremost experts and co-hosted by the Central Valley Regional Center, this virtual program gave providers and allied health professionals the information and tools needed to initiate early diagnosis, intervention and provide community support resources for children with autism or related neurodevelopmental disorders. Over 140 health care professionals participated. Patrick Shea, MD, UCSF Fresno, assistant clinical professor, UCSF Department of Psychiatry, was the program director.
April
UCSF Fresno welcomed Meg Autry, MD, a UCSF professor of obstetrics and gynecology, as the interim Chief of the UCSF Fresno Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology beginning April 1. Dr. Autry took stewardship of the UCSF Fresno Department of OB/GYN from Carlos Sueldo, MD, who retired as Chief after eight years at the department’s helm.
On Thursday, April 21, UCSF Fresno hosted the International Advances in SARS-CoV-2 and CoVID-19 Town Hall Lecture. This informative event presented lecturers from around the world and was created to understand and define the unique properties of SARS-CoV-2 that impact human and animal welfare and how basic science models are used to study potential evolutionary stressors. Fernando Teixeira, MD, assistant professor, UCSF Fresno, Emergency Medicine, was the program director.
The 2022 High Sierra Wilderness and Travel Medicine Conference returned to the Pines Resort at Bass Lake April 25-27. Over 80 people attended. Each day consisted of lectures and hands-on breakout sessions. Susanne Spano, MD; Danielle Campagne, MD; Michelle Storkan, MD; Janak Acharya, MD, were lecturers at the conference. Roger Mortimer, MD, with the Department of Family and Community Medicine also presented. James McCue, MD, and Cyrus Haselman, MD, both faculty members in the Department of Emergency Medicine, were the program directors
May
Celebrating its 17th year, the Cardiology in the Valley Symposium was hosted virtually on May 14 and was attended by nearly 100 physicians and allied health providers. The 2022 symposium covered recent advances and updated guidelines in various disciplines of cardiovascular disease that have replaced prior concepts that had been considered “state of the art”, including updates in Coronary Artery Disease, Cardiovascular Imaging, Heart Failure, Electrophysiology and Structural Heart Disease. John Ambrose, MD, professor of Medicine, was the program director.
In May, the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators (AME) at the UCSF School of Medicine announced the appointment of Loren I. Alving, MD, as the Mr. and Mrs. David George Rowe and Stephen W. Rowe Endowed Chair for Teaching in Neurology. The purpose of the endowed chair is to support teaching excellence in the Department of Neurology. Dr. Alving is a health sciences and clinical professor in Neurology; director of the UCSF Fresno Alzheimer & Memory Center; and director of the UCSF SJV PRIME. At UCSF Fresno, Dr. Alving joins endowed chairs for the chiefs of Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Surgery and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Research. This is the first AME Chair awarded to a faculty member on the Fresno regional campus.
In May 2022, UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL COVID-19 Equity Project began administering the oral antiviral medications, Paxlovid and Mulnupiravir, for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death.
On May 25, UCSF Fresno held an Employee Appreciation Day to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of all those employed by UCSF.
June
On June 9, UCSF Fresno celebrated Resident and Fellow Commencement in-person for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ninety-five medical residents and fellows, four oral and maxillofacial surgery dental residents and one head and neck oncology and microvascular reconstruction fellow, along with eight physician assistants in three different PA programs completed training this year. The total number of graduates from UCSF Fresno training programs was 108. Many of the graduates stayed in Fresno and the Central Valley to care for patients, teach future physicians or continue their medical education. Fifty percent of Emergency Medicine, nearly 40% of Family and Community Medicine, 60% of Internal Medicine and 40% of Pediatric residents stayed in the Central Valley.
At commencement, Brian Chinnock, MD, health sciences clinical professor and research director in the UCSF Fresno Department of Emergency Medicine, received the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching. Each year, the UCSF School of Medicine awards the prestigious Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching to four members of the clinical faculty. These awards recognize outstanding teaching, motivational skills and communications abilities. One of the esteemed awards is reserved for a faculty member at UCSF Fresno.
New residents known as interns started their training at UCSF Fresno with a weeklong Orientation and Clinical Skills Boot Camp. Due to the pandemic, this year was the first time since 2019 the traditional in-person format was back. The Graduate Medical Education Department onboarded interns the week of June 21. Interns were fit tested for masks and practiced donning and doffing along with various clinical skills activities. In addition, all new residents gathered for workshops led by UCSF Fresno and Community Regional Medical Center leadership.
UCSF Fresno was awarded funding by the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) to launch the California Medicine Scholars Program (CMSP) as part of a statewide strategy and investment by the HCAI to strengthen the California community college to medical school pathway. CMSP, housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, awarded funds to UCSF Fresno, UC Davis School of Medicine, UC Riverside School of Medicine and UC San Diego School of Medicine to establish Regional Hubs of Healthcare Opportunity (RHHOs). The RHHOs bridge gaps between community colleges, four-year universities, medical schools, and community-based health clinics and organizations to provide greater pre-medical opportunities for students and help diversify California’s primary care physician workforce.
July
UCSF Fresno’s Summer Biomedical Internship Program (SBI) returned this year. Established in 1988, SBI provides high-quality biomedical experiences for local students. The program matches high school students, in the summer between their junior and senior year of high school, with faculty members who have or are developing a research project. Since its establishment, over two hundred students have participated in the SBI program. Many of them are finishing their medical residencies, are working in the biomedicine or biotechnical industries, or are in medical school or doctorate programs at various universities.
August
UCSF School of Medicine and UCSF Fresno welcomed the fourth cohort of students in the UCSF San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME). All 12 students admitted to the SJV PRIME matriculating class of 2022 call the Valley home and were inspired to pursue medicine by health disparities and inequities they experienced or observed growing up.
UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL expanded services in August to include a drive-thru vaccine clinic for the JYNNEOS vaccine for the prevention of Monkeypox (MPX). The MPX drive-thru vaccine clinic is located at the COVID-19 Equity Project drive-thru clinic at 550 E. Shaw Ave., across from Fashion Fair Mall in Fresno.
| In August, Danielle Campagne, MD, FACEP, was announced as interim Chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF Fresno and interim Vice-Chair of Emergency Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. Dr. Campagne, a Sanger native, took over for Jim Comes, MD, FACEP, who stepped down after having served tirelessly as Chief since 2017. Most recently, Dr. Campagne served as Vice Chief of the UCSF Fresno Department of Emergency Medicine. UCSF Fresno thanks Dr. Comes for his longtime service to trainees, patients, to UCSF Fresno and to the community. And congratulations and thank you to Dr. Campagne for assuming this important role while a nationwide search for a permanent chief is conducted. |
September
From Sept. 6 through Oct. 31, community college students from the San Joaquin Valley who are interested in becoming doctors were invited to apply for the San Joaquin Valley California Medicine Scholars Program (SJV-CMSP). SJV-CMSP is a pre-medical diversity pathway from community college to medical school with the goal of increasing the number of primary care physicians practicing in the San Joaquin Valley. UCSF Fresno is the lead agency for the San Joaquin Valley Regional Hub of Healthcare Opportunity (SJV-RHHO), which launched July 1, to implement the SJV-CMSP. UCSF Fresno was one of four institutions selected and funded by the Department of Health Care Access and Information to strengthen the California community college to medical school pathway.
The University of California Hematologic Malignancies Consortium is a collaboration across the five University of California Cancer Centers and UCSF Fresno to conduct multicenter investigator-initiated clinical trials in a more efficient and effective manner. The consortium held its Seventh Annual UCHMC Research Symposium at UCSF Fresno on Sept. 8 and 9 and included discussions on opportunities for collaboration across the UC system, translating recent laboratory discoveries into new therapies, application of novel therapies in hematologic malignancies, and ongoing clinical trials currently being conducted by the UC Hematologic Malignancies Consortium. Nearly 90 people attended.
The UCSF Fresno Department of Internal Medicine presented the fifth Annual Air Pollution and Climate Change Symposium on Sept. 17. Held in-person and online, this event was open to health care providers and the general public and is focused on the challenges of air pollution in California and the steps being taken to find solutions. More than 100 people attended.
October
UCSF Fresno presented the 2022 Virtual Mini Med School lecture series, the eleventh installment of Mini Med School, on consecutive Thursdays starting Oct. 6 through Oct. 27 via Zoom Webinar. This series focused on preventative measures for specific health and social issues, including climate change, cancer prevention, pre-hospital emergency care, and more. Sukhjit Dhillon, MD, clinical instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, was the program director. Nearly 300 people registered with about 100 participants taking part online.
The fourth annual UCSF Fresno Liver Expo was held in-person and online on Oct. 22. This hybrid community event focused on keeping your liver healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants also heard from experts on endoscopic bariatric therapy, liver transplant in fatty liver disease, a healthy lunch, health screenings and fitness circuit training. Marina Roytman, MD, Director of the UCSF Fresno Liver Program, was the program director. More than 100 people took part.
November
On Nov. 4, in-person and online, the UCSF Fresno Office of Diversity and Outreach held the second installment in the UCSF Fresno Health Equity Symposium series, “At Risk in the Central Valley: Voices from the Black and Hmong Communities. ” Members of the Black and Hmong communities shared experiences and recommendations for better patient outcomes at this continuing medical education event. Julie Nicole, MD, clinical instructor in the Department of Ob/Gyn; John Moua, MD, chief, Department of Pediatrics; and Andrea Long, MD, with the Department of Surgery and Diversity Director, were the course directors. Approximately 70 people participated.
On Nov. 9, the UCSF School of Medicine announced the launch of the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education+ (SJV PRIME+) Baccalaureate/MD Program. SJV PRIME+ is an educational pathway partnership among UCSF, UCSF Fresno, and UC Merced, designed to recruit, train, and graduate 21st Century physician leaders committed to serving the San Joaquin Valley. This new program expands on SJV PRIME, enabling San Joaquin Valley students to enter an eight-year program directly out of high school and conduct all phases of their medical education entirely in the Valley. The first class will matriculate as students at UC Merced in 2023 and enter this specially crafted medical education program in 2027.
UCSF Fresno was well represented at the Fresno Madera Medical Society (FMMS) Gala on Nov. 18 where John Moua, MD, chief of Pediatrics at UCSF Fresno and current president of the FMMS, installed incoming medical society officers, including Marina Roytman, MD, director of the UCSF Fresno Liver Program, as President; and Greg Simpson, MD, medical director of the UCSF Fresno Division of Dermatology, as Secretary/Treasurer. Kenny Banh, MD, assistant dean, Undergraduate Medical Education, UCSF Fresno, received a public service award for UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL COVID-19 Equity Project.
December
Over the past few years, UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL through its COVID-19 Equity Project administered 94,000 tests for COVID-19, delivered 82,000 vaccines and treated more than 800 patients with monoclonal antibodies or prescriptions with most people served identifying as persons of color.
To support UCSF Fresno, please contact Kathleen Smith, Assistant Director of Development, at (559) 499-6426 or [email protected].
UCSF Fresno wishes you a happy, healthy 2023!
