Future Pysician Program Networking Dinner

More than 50 students, physicians and health care leaders will take part in the Future Physician Leaders winter social scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, at the Soul of Mexico restaurant, 44-100 Jefferson St., Suite E-502.

The event is one of the biannual dinners that bring together students who aspire to become physicians, practicing physicians and health care leaders from the Coachella Valley for a networking event designed to mentor local students who want to serve the community as physician leaders. The Dec. 21 dinner is co-hosted by the UCR School of Medicine and Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP).

Among the organizations to be represented at the event are Eisenhower Medical Center, Desert Regional Medical Center, Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, Volunteers In Medicine, Borrego Community Health Foundation, Desert Healthcare District and CVEP’s Pathways to Success program.

The Future Physician Leaders program is a community-based collaborative established in 2009 by Raul Ruiz, a Coachella Valley emergency physician, and senior associate dean for community engagement and partnerships in the UCR medical school. The purpose of the program is to inspire more of the region’s high school and college students to become physicians and community leaders.

Participating students attend presentations on topics in medicine, health care and career development. Community service and leadership activities are designed to expose students to the virtues of service and to actively engage them in leadership roles to improve health care access and community health. Last summer, students developed a community health education resource manual to inform residents of health education opportunities in the community. Students also developed and implemented diabetes screenings and health education in underserved communities.

A third component, the Summer Shadowing program, allowed 20 college students to shadow physicians in primary care clinics, medical centers and other health care settings for one half day a week over the course of six weeks.