Sutter Health and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) are engaging in a long-term partnership to increase health equity and address ongoing workforce challenges by increasing workforce pathways for underrepresented physicians in California. The $7.5 million investment by Sutter marks CDU’s largest scholarship program in the school’s history.
Leon Clark, vice president and chief academic affairs officer at Sutter, said the collaboration began about a year ago. From a strategy standpoint, staff has been looking at data that could address the physician shortage in California, while unabating the physician shortage across the country, since California is the largest net exporter of medical students, Clark said.
“For Sutter, this gives us an opportunity to develop pathways into residency programs, which are a growing commitment for both organizations to advancing health equity,” Clark said.
There are two components of the program. The first component will provide five full-tuition scholarships across five cohorts from 2024-2028, with a total of 25 scholarships. The investment will also create the Health Equity Alliance for Research & Evaluation (HEARE) to serve as a lab that puts health equity research into clinical practice.
Arthur Gomez, CDU’s senior associate dean of medical education, said the program will recruit groups of students to address health disparities, like maternal mortality in Black birthing people. While CDU is disallowed from using race or ethnicity data in the recruitment process due to policy, Gomez said many students enroll at CDU to eventually care for underserved populations. Many students are from BIPOC communities and come from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
There were 60 students in the program’s first class, and 61 percent identified as female. The average age of students was 27, and 57 percent were African American, while 23 percent were Latino, according to Gomez. He said the second class had similar demographics, with about 40 to 50 percent of students coming from families with annual incomes less than $40,000.
“It’s the opposite of who gets into medical school elsewhere,” Gomez said.
Clark said scholarships are meaningful to students because of primary care access issues. Over time, he’s noticed an uptick of tremendous student debt. More patients are on Medi-Cal than ever before, and reimbursement rates are not as high for primary care as they are for specialty care. Having the opportunity to go to medical school for free is a big deal, Clark said, as students have more choice in pursuing their passions without having to worry about paying back debt later on.
“We were quite intentional about all the ways which we could help students, and this addresses a major challenge.”
— Clark
The goal of the HEARE portion of the program is to design interventions that ultimately help improve health outcomes by conducting a community needs assessment, and to propose projects to evaluate and pursue.
Gomez said the program is not only teaching students how to care for underserved populations, but it’s also teaching them how to become leaders. Gomez said students need to understand health policy and research in order to create effective changes in the lives of patients. Second-year students in the program recently participated in Los Angeles Board of Supervisors meetings, where they were taught how to do community engagement projects and interview stakeholders.
“We will help with board prep to the extent that the students need it,” Clark added. “They will each have a physician mentor at Sutter.”
Clark said the partnership is merely scratching the surface of what it could become in the future, and sees much potential in the program.
“Our students are survivors. They’re resilient because they’ve made it this far without the advantages I’m talking about,” Gomez said.
Readers interested in learning more about California health policy can register to attend the 2024 Southern California State of Reform Health Policy Conference on Sept. 11 at the Westin Pasadena Hotel. A “The Growth & Sustainability of Southern California’s Workforce” panel will be held at 1 p.m.