A Letter from the Department Chair

Welcome to the website of the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA. As department Chair, I am pleased that you have elected to visit us and I invite you to take an online journey and learn more about our educational and research programs, as well as the University and School of Medicine.

UCLA

Established in 1919 on the site of the present Central L.A. Public Library as the first branch of the Berkeley-based University of California, the school migrated west to 400 empty acres in Westwood in 1929. In the 25 years following World War II, both L.A. and UCLA witnessed spectacular growth as UCLA matured into a major research university that now includes a study body of 37,000 enrolled in virtually every area of study.

Ranked seventh in the nation in federal funding for research, UCLA is one of just 10 universities to receive the National Science Foundation's Award for the Integration of Research and Education.

Health Sciences

The southern portion of the sprawling UCLA campus is devoted to Health Sciences with top ranked schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and public health. Although one of the nation's "younger" medical schools - it has recently celebrated its 50th anniversary - the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is noted for the diversity of its classes and service to the community.

As a research and educational institution, it is ranked in the top 10 nationally among medical schools in NIH funding. The UCLA Medical System includes the UCLA Medical Center, the Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Mattel's Children's Hospital of UCLA all on campus, as well as Santa Monica/UCLA Hospital. The Medical Center is consistently named the best in the western United States.

In addition to the above UCLA owned facilities, the School of Medicine has major affiliations and training programs at 2 public Los Angeles County hospitals; Olive View-UCLA and Harbor-UCLA. Collectively these UCLA institutions and affiliates offer training in virtually every discipline and provide direct patient care to thousands of individuals and families within the Los Angeles community and the nation.

Department of Family Medicine

In 1997, the Regents of the University of California elevated family medicine to department status after 23 years as a division. This brought additional resources as well as a national search for a permanent chair. In November 1998, I assumed the chair's position. My background includes rural practice at a 50-bed hospital on the California-Mexico border as well as more than 20 years as a medical educator, including serving as program director at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and Brown University.

Prior to joining the School of Medicine at UCLA, I spent 9 years as Chair at Harbor-UCLA, a tertiary care public hospital. In all 3 of these programs I developed successful linkages between teaching family health centers and underserved communities. I view such ventures as "win-win" situations as they provide excellent educational opportunities, as well as access to high quality care for low-income populations.

Recognizing that the patient mix at the UCLA Medical Center was becoming increasingly tertiary and quaternary, UCLA purchased Santa Monica Hospital in 1995 to insure proper primary care settings for both patient care and its educational programs. Located just 3 miles west of the Westwood campus, this community hospital had sponsored an excellent free-standing family medicine program for some 30 years.

Three years ago, the UCLA Family Medicine Residency Program and -- Santa Monica-UCLA Residency Program, merged into one large UCLA program with two tracks -- the Les Kelley track in Santa Monica and the Mid Valley track-- thereby insuring that the next generation of UCLA Family Medicine trainees would be well prepared for the practice of Family Medicine in the context of the community. (Please visit the Residency page for details.)

Fellowships/Other Training Programs

In addition to staffing a large family medicine residency, the department sponsors residencies in Occupational Medicine as well as fellowships in Sports Medicine and Preventive Medicine. Further, UCLA is one of 10 sites in Los Angeles County to offer National Research Service Award (NRSA) fellowship training, and one of only 4 sites in the nation that is a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar training site. Finally, family physicians are also eligible for UCLA's highly regarded Geriatrics fellowship.

Now that you have journeyed this far, I urge you to open other links on this site to access additional information about the department and its program. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Patrick T. Dowling, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor and Chair
Department of Family Medicine
pdowling@mednet.ucla.edu