July 2022

THE VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL
2 www.TheValleyBusinessJournal.com
July 2022
UHS SOCAL MEC LAUNCHES FOUR NEW GRADUATE
MEDICAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Universal Health Services Southern
California Medical Education
Consortium (UHS SoCal MEC) has
been approved by the Accreditation
Council for Graduate Medical Education
(ACGME) to launch four new
programs in July 2022 for General
Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Pulmonary and Sports Medicine, facilitated
through Temecula Valley Hospital,
Southwest Healthcare System
and Corona Regional Medical Center.
“We are extremely excited to continue
adding Graduate Medical Education
training to Southwest Riverside
County with the recent additions of our
UHS SoCal MEC residency programs
in Ob/Gyn and General Surgery, and
fellowships in Pulmonary and Sports
Medicine,” said Michael Nduati, MD,
MBA, MPH, FAAFP, Chief Academic
Officer and Designated Institutional
Official, UHS Southern California
Medical Education Consortium. “With
our dedicated physician faculty and
future graduates, we will continue
to raise the level of clinical care and
help address physician shortages in the
region. These training programs will
provide a significant positive impact
for the communities we serve.”
The Obstetrics and Gynecology
Residency is a four-year program under
the direction of Kimberly Tustison,
MD, and will accept three residents
per year at Southwest Healthcare
System. The program aims to provide
superior education and develop
resilient physicians who will provide
professional, compassionate, high
quality obstetric and gynecologic
healthcare for women. The program
strives to train physician leaders to
care for the women of our community.
The curriculum includes inpatient
obstetric care; comprehensive gynecologic
care in the office, hospital, and
operating rooms; ambulatory training
in private clinics, continuity clinic,
and the outpatient surgery center; and
sub-specialty experiences including
gynecologic oncology, outpatient
and inpatient maternal fetal medicine,
urogynecology, family planning
and reproductive endocrinology and
infertility.
The new fully accredited General
Surgery Residency Program is a fiveyear
program, placing three residents
per year at Corona Regional Medical
Center, Southwest Healthcare System
and Temecula Valley Hospital. This
new program will expand surgery
training opportunities and attract
more top medical talent to the Inland
Empire. The program will allow UHS
to train the next generation of surgeons
to provide compassionate care with a
commitment to improving the health of
the diverse communities that we serve.
The Pulmonary Fellowship program,
led by David Lee, MD, is a 2-year
program for two fellows per year at
Temecula Valley Hospital. The program
provides excellent exposure and training
in all aspects of pulmonary disease from
routine outpatient practice to advanced
lung disease and transplantation. The
primary goal of this program is to train
a competent well rounded specialty consultant
to prepare them for a broad range
of career opportunities upon graduation.
This training is provided by both didactic
instruction and direct patient care
under the direct supervision of expert
pulmonary, critical care, sleep medicine
and other faculty. Didactic instruction is
provided in all areas of pulmonology and
critical care as outlined in the specific
topic areas required by the ACGME.
The Primary Care Sports Medicine
Fellowship is a one-year program with
two sports medicine fellows led by Jerry
Hizon, MD. This program will help in
the community with team care, event
care and individual care of active/athletic
patients. It will use state-of-the-art musculoskeletal
ultrasound to aid in exact diagnosis.
The fellows will engage in community
service at the local high schools,
Mount San Jacinto College, as well as
with Temecula Valley Pop Warner teams
and will academically be involved with
the American Medical Society Sports
Medicine, Olympic Training Facility and
Ballet Performing Arts in San Diego, Ski
Trauma at Mammoth Mountain and anatomy
teaching high schools of Temecula
Valley Unified School District. At the
conclusion of their training, they will sit
for the sports medicine boards to obtain
a certificate of added qualifications in
Primary Care Sports Medicine.
“Adding these additional residency
programs on top of our already successful
Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and
Emergency Medicine programs allow
us to provide additional support to our
patients, facilities, and community,” said
Group Vice President for UHS Southern
California Region, Brad Neet. “In addition,
we are excited to begin our Cardiology
Fellowship program at Temecula
Valley Hospital in July of 2022. Our goal
is to retain these individuals in order to
ensure high quality care over the long
term in Southwest Riverside County.”
For more information, visit www.
socalresidency.com.
About UHS Southern California Medical
Education Consortium
The UHS Southern California Medical
Education Consortium, LLC (UHS
SoCal MEC), established in 2018, was
created to develop graduate medical
education (GME) residency programs
in the California network of UHS acute
care hospitals, with a strong academic
affiliation with Western University of
Health Sciences in Pomona, California.
These hospitals include Temecula Valley
Hospital, Corona Regional Medical Center,
Southwest Healthcare System (Inland
Valley Medical Center, Rancho Springs
Medical Center) and Palmdale Regional
Medical Center.
Our residency programs are integrated
into the core mission of the hospitals:
to provide our community superior quality
care that patients recommend to family
and friends and physicians prefer for their
patients, while offering unique training
opportunities to the next generation of
healthcare providers.
The approach of our programs is
to provide a diverse, firsthand clinical
training experience coupled with didactics,
research opportunities and involvement
in hospital operations to prepare
residents to pursue the next step in their
careers, from full-time clinical practice to
teaching, research, medical leadership or
further subspecialty training. The keys to
the success of the UHS SoCal MEC are
to provide a solid, sound foundation for
learning and training and new opportunities
so residents can explore the various
possibilities medical careers offer. The
goal is to position graduates so they are
prepared for the career they choose and
are passionate about.