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RIVERSIDE, CA: Riverside Medical Clinic, a multi-specialty medical practice group long associated with the medical education program at the University of California, Riverside, has pledged a flagship private gift of $1 million toward development of the School of Medicine, it was announced today.
The pledge will establish the Riverside Medical Clinic Endowed Fund to support medical school activities. The gift will provide a source of funds for the medical school in perpetuity because endowed funds generate investment income while preserving the gift as principal.
“This pledge from Riverside Medical Clinic is an extraordinary endorsement of the UCR School of Medicine that recognizes the critical need to expand the physician workforce in this rapidly growing region,” said UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White. “I want to express our deepest gratitude to Dr. Steven Larson, the Board of Directors and the entire staff of Riverside Medical Clinic.”
Established in Riverside’s Mission Inn in 1935, Riverside Medical Clinic (RMC) has grown into the Inland Empire’s largest provider of ambulatory care, comprising a multi-specialty medical practice group of more than 120 physicians serving patients in clinics located in Riverside, Corona, Jurupa Valley and Moreno Valley. In addition to adult and pediatric primary care, RMC staff includes specialists in areas such as cardiology, dermatology, oncology, obstetrics/gynecology and rheumatology, as well as orthopedic, vascular and plastic surgery. The group also offers vision care and women’s health services.
“The physicians and staff at Riverside Medical Clinic are proud of our support of UCR and of our continued partnership in raising the level of health care throughout the Inland Empire,” said Dr. Larson. “The UCR medical school is the answer to the need for an increase in the local physician workforce. Together we are all stronger.”
The University of California Board of Regents in July approved establishment of the medical school, which will respond to the critical need to expand and diversify the physician workforce in the Inland Empire.
The region faces a physician shortfall as high as 53 percent by 2015 and currently has poorer health outcomes than most California counties for a number of significant diseases, such as coronary heart disease and diabetes. The medical school will also develop research and health care delivery programs to improve the health of medically underserved populations.
The first incoming class of 50 medical students is projected to enroll in the UCR School of Medicine in fall 2012. Concurrently, the medical school will launch residency programs to offer the required training for postgraduate medical students to achieve board certification and medical licensure. Enrollment will ramp up gradually to a total of 400 medical students, 160 residents and 160 graduate students.
Riverside Medical Clinic becomes the first medical practice group to join the UCR School of Medicine Founders’ Circle, recognizing leadership gifts to the medical school of at least $1 million.
“Philanthropic support from Riverside Medical Clinic, and others, will position the medical school to make a real difference in the future health care of the people of this region,” said White. “In addition to providing an extra measure of excellence, private funding will help us maintain the momentum that is so critical for this project.”
Riverside Medical Clinic has had a long association with the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences, which offers the first two years of medical school instruction to admitted UCR students, after which students transfer to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA to finish their M.D. degrees. Larson is one of about a half dozen group physicians to serve on the clinical faculty of the program. RMC also offers summer “externships” for UCR medical students to gain experience working with practicing physicians and several physicians serve as mentors to students.
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