Kaiser Gives $2M to UCLA Effort for Doctors Trained in Latin America
On Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente announced a $2 million, five-year grant to help fund the expansion of a program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA that aims to help physicians trained in Latin America obtain licenses to practice in California, the San Francisco Business Times reports (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 5/5).
Once the physicians pass U.S. licensing exams, the International Medical Graduate Program places them in family medicine residency programs throughout the state with a particular focus on underserved Spanish-speaking communities.
Patrick Dowling, chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA, said there currently are about 2,500 physicians trained in Latin America in California who are not licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. (UPI, 5/5). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.