Building medical schools around social missions: The case of the university of California, Riverside

Abstract

The University of California recently created the first new public medical school on the West Coast of the United States in nearly 50 years. It was built in a region of California with significant health challenges, including a marked physician shortage and very poor overall health outcomes. The region’s population is racially and ethnically diverse and rapidly growing, with a particularly large population of Mexican American residents. It is also an area with high unemployment, low college-going rates compared to most other areas of California, and a large undocumented immigrant population. When the University of California Board of Regents authorized the creation of this new medical school, it charted unique social missions for the school that have particular relevance to the needs of its immediate region. This article presents a single case study of how the school was designed to accomplish these social missions and, ultimately, to improve the health of the people living in the region it serves. Many of the strategies used were adopted from developing countries that have far more serious workforce issues and health challenges. The authors believe these strategies and missions are unique among the 17 new medical schools created in the United States in the last decade. Furthermore, this model could have broader implications for the development of health policies and health system reform in other nations, such as Mexico.