The UC Davis School of Medicine is partnering with Doctors Medical Center in Modesto so selected residents can practice medicine in the Central Valley hospital while training to become board-certified specialists.

Residents in obstetrics and gynecology, and cardiothoracic surgery are participating in the partnership.

The alliance adds significant value for trainees eager to gain clinical experience outside of Sacramento, especially in rural and underserved settings. Doctors Medical Center (DMC) benefits too, because residents who train there may eventually want to establish their careers in the area. This can help solve the recruiting challenges faced by Central Valley hospitals and clinics.

The partnership launched last year.

“We are delighted to expand and strengthen our affiliations with Doctors Medical Center to better meet the health care needs of communities in the Central Valley,” said Susan Murin, interim dean of UC Davis School of Medicine.

“Adding cardiothoracic surgery and obstetrics-gynecology residency rotations to our existing partnership with DMC will give our trainees invaluable experience providing much-needed care in a region where access to these services is limited,” she said. “Our residents are passionate about community-based care, and this is an excellent, new opportunity for them to make a difference and improve lives.”

Our residents are passionate about community-based care and this is an excellent, new opportunity for them to make a difference and improve lives.”—Susan Murin, dean, UC Davis School of Medicine

OB-GYN and cardiothoracic residents have a formal rotation that lasts several weeks during their training. OB-GYN is a four-year residency and cardiothoracic is a six-year program.

“Having the opportunity for our residents to train in Modesto is very different from training in an academic environment because the Central Valley is a region of the state where there’s a need for more cardiac and thoracic surgery care,” said Gary Raff, a UC Davis Health professor of clinical surgery and program director of the cardiothoracic surgery residency. “This rotation provides a meaningful experience for residents, patients and our partners at DMC.”

Having the opportunity for our residents to train in Modesto is very different from training in an academic environment because the Central Valley is a region of the state where there’s a need for more cardiac and thoracic surgery care.”—Gary Raff, program director, cardiothoracic surgery residency

Caring for patients from rural and urban settings

Chitra Gotluru was among the first OB-GYN residents from UC Davis Health to practice at Doctors Medical Center.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to learn how to provide a wide range of care as a general OB-GYN because the area is a combination of suburban and rural,” Gotluru said. “Having the ability to do process improvement and care without the patient having to travel or see a specialist is a tremendous experience.”

The Modesto rotation adds a much-appreciated learning environment for OB-GYN residents. They typically experience 60% of their patient care responsibilities at UC Davis Health, and 40% at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Roseville, Sacramento and surrounding clinics.

“From an educational perspective, this is a great partnership,” said Véronique Taché, the OB-GYN residency program director for UC Davis. The residents training in Sacramento and Roseville medical centers, she said, are more likely to treat patients with more severe medical conditions, including obstetrical and gynecological emergencies, since they are referral centers for the surrounding communities and hospitals. The patients in Modesto have more routine and low risk issues.

“You need to see the ‘bread and butter’ types of conditions that helps build the residents’ scope of practice as a generalist OB-GYN,” Taché said. “The rotation at DMC gives our residents great exposure and a very good view of what it’s like to work in a community-based hospital, in an area with OB-GYN physician shortages.”

The rotation at Doctors Medical Center gives our residents great exposure and a very good view of what it’s like to work in a community-based hospital, in an area with OB-GYN physician shortages.” —Véronique Taché, program director, OB-GYN residency

UC Davis is committed to improve access and fill workforce needs

UC Davis Health’s strategy of sending residents to care for patients in the Central Valley is aligned with the state government’s goals of filling workforce needs and improving access in medically underserved areas. In fact, the OB-GYN residency program has expanded over the past two years, thanks to hundreds of thousands of dollars in state grants from CalMedForce and the Song-Brown Program.

For OB-GYN fourth-year resident Mehnoor Haseeb, the Doctors Medical Center rotation last year put her closer to the community where she was raised in Modesto, in a Pakistani immigrant family.

“Training at DMC was really rewarding because I got to serve some of the populations I grew up with, in a community where I spent my formative years,” she said. “Plus, I received a wonderful educational experience because the physicians at DMC trained me in some procedures that OB-GYN residents usually don’t see until the latter part of their residency.”

Doctors Medical Center thoracic surgeon John deGraft-Johnson said he’s eager to help train “the next generation of top physicians” by instructing them on state-of-the-art procedures.

He recently led a team of physicians, including a UC Davis resident, in a procedure that was celebrated at Doctors Medical Center for being one of the first of its kind in California. The procedure was a robotic-assisted, minimally invasive direct vision coronary artery muti-vessel bypass graft surgery.

“By expanding our relationship with UC Davis,” deGraft-Johnson said, “we are growing the breadth and quality of advanced services that we provide the communities we serve.”