FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2001

Contact: Alice Trinkl, News Director
Source: Cara Peracchi Douglas,
Director of Public Affairs and Communications, UCSF-Fresno
(559) 243.3606; E-mail: carapd@ucsfresno.edu

UCSF-Fresno Medical Education Program celebrates the perfect match

Fresno, Calif.-For the first time in the 25-year history of the University of California, San
Francisco, Fresno Medical Education Program (UCSF-Fresno MEP) matched 93 percent of its new resident positions available. The 50 new residents come from as far away as the Ukraine and as nearby as Fresno's backyard.

"We are thrilled with the overwhelming number of residents that have made UCSF-Fresno their top choice," said Deborah Stewart, MD and Associate Dean of UCSF-Fresno MEP. "Every year, medical training programs in the United States and Canada compete intensely to attract the best and brightest medical students to their institution and today we are benchmarking our success."

UCSF-Fresno trains 175 medical and surgical residents in seven specialty areas. These include: internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, emergency care, psychiatry, and family practice. After graduating, over 50 percent choose to practice medicine in the Valley. "Today's UCSF-Fresno resident is tomorrow's leading Valley doctor," said Stewart. "They represent our hope for the future."

Training is not the only benchmark UCSF-Fresno delivers. "Asthma, teen pregnancy and diabetes-these are just some of the health issues plaguing our Valley," said Stewart. "UCSF-Fresno serves as a national model because we build our program around what our community needs."

UCSF-Fresno is made up of well over 100 core physicians from the Central Valley that devote their full-time efforts to training young physicians in the art and science of medicine. "Thanks to telemedicine, we have a total of over 500 doctors from all corners of the world who make up our total clinical staff," Stewart stated. "We are grateful to them and to all of our community partners."

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