Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) Education Consortium has received a $1.04 million CalMedForce grant, generated by the voter-approved Proposition 56 Tobacco Tax of 2016. The awards are distributed by Physicians for a Healthy California, a philanthropic arm of the California Medical Association. This funding supports medical training, the expansion of residency programs, and growth of the physician workforce in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
"This funding allows Loma Linda University Health to support eight additional residency positions to help serve our current patients, but more importantly are developing the specialty expertise to care for many more patients in the future,” said Daniel Giang, MD, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education (GME) at Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
LLUH residency programs that will receive this funding include family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology.
California remains one of only seven states that do not fund GME through Medicaid, making grants like this essential. This seventh round of CalMedForce funding will support 184 residency positions in 142 GME programs at California hospitals and clinics that provide care to medically underserved groups and communities.
Since 2016, LLUH Education Consortium has received CalMedForce grants to support resident physicians that stay and serve the growing region.
“Twenty-five percent of our residents and fellows remain at Loma Linda University Health to continue their careers as faculty physicians with the School of Medicine after completing their training,” added Giang.
To maintain a medical license in California, physicians must complete at least three years of GME after medical school. Loma Linda University Health’s GME program currently trains over 900 residents and fellows across 73 accredited programs.