UCSF Fresno file photo

UCSF School of Medicine is establishing a “branch campus” at UCSF Fresno to lead the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME), a training program designed to prepare medical students to address the unique health needs of the region’s underserved populations.

Students enrolled in the program will spend 18 months at the main UCSF campus in San Francisco before moving to Fresno for the remainder of their medical school training. As many as six students will be picked in the fall of 2019 with the goal of achieving an incoming SJV PRIME class of 12 students.

Previously based out of the medical school at UC Davis, the program was recently transferred to UCSF with the approval of the national medical school accrediting body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, paving the way for the UCSF Fresno branch campus.

“The two best predictors of where physicians will practice are where they complete residency and where they grew up,” said Dr. Michael W. Peterson, associate dean at UCSF Fresno. “About 50 percent of physicians who graduate from UCSF Fresno residency and fellowship programs already remain in the Valley to provide care, and we are optimistic that the percentage will increase with the opportunity for more medical students to train locally.”

The UC Davis PRIME will continue in parallel for the rising first-year medical students admitted this year, who are expected to graduate in 2022.

UCSF Fresno campus is distinct from, but operates under, the accreditation of the UCSF School of Medicine.