We’re working to serve cultures and communities that have been underrepresented and marginalized by the health care system, and to ensure all feel welcome by reflecting our community's diversity in our hiring and clinical practices. Some examples of work in this area:
Culturally Competent, Socially Inclusive Care
Circumstances we’re helping to improve:
Addressing representation
Some cultures and communities have been underrepresented, and often marginalized, by the health care system and medical community
Creating structural change
Innovative, culturally congruent training prepares future care providers for practice in diverse, often medically underserved communities
Reflecting diversity
Ensuring all feel welcome by reflecting our community’s diversity in our hiring and clinical practices
Some examples of our efforts:
TRAINING FOR ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
Spotlight: Community Health Scholars
A long-established goal of the UC Davis School of Medicine is to train physicians for practice in diverse communities where they are most needed to bridge California’s health equity gap.
The school’s innovative Community Health Scholars programs, and other unique programs for med students and residents, train future doctors to practice in California’s rural, urban, valley and tribal communities. Most of these areas are challenged by health disparities.
INVESTED AND RECOGNIZED
Spotlight: Leader in Healthcare Equality (LGBTQ+)
Named a LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader for 13 consecutive years by the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign, a national-scale nonprofit that strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
TRAINING FOR ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
Spotlight: National honors for educational diversity
Despite California’s long-standing ban on affirmative action, the UC Davis School of Medicine has become one of the nation’s most diverse medical schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
The medical school and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, which employs similar holistic admissions practices, each have received excellence awards from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, and have been in the policy and media spotlight as national models.
TRAINING FOR ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
Creating pathways to health careers
Our initiatives to boost the number of health care providers in underserved parts of Northern California also include a variety of unique “pathway” programs.
These initiatives target students in pre-medical school environments like high school or community college, exposing and preparing them for potential health careers that can help the state’s health care workforce better reflect and serve its diverse population. Some examples:
More Believe in Better Highlights
Some recent examples of our ongoing efforts to advance health for all.
UC Davis Health uses AI models to leave no patient behind
A multidisciplinary team has created an AI model to predict which patients may benefit from care management services and avoid hospitalization.
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Mobile mammography clinic increases access to lifesaving breast cancer screening
After a ribbon cutting ceremony, the cancer center’s first mobile mammography clinic hit the road. ‘MobileMammo+’ will increase access to lifesaving breast cancer screenings.
‘Caregivers Corner’ helps those supporting a loved one with cancer
If you are caring for someone with cancer, consider joining a new support group called the Caregivers Corner that meets monthly.
UC Davis Health team joins Rotaplast to provide free surgical care in India
UC Davis Health employees joined a recent Rotaplast mission to change lives through surgeries to repair cleft lips and palates and serious burn scars.