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UCSF Fresno Receives Grant to Institute Diabetes Management Program

July 01, 2003
News Office: Cara Peracchi Douglas (559) 243-3606

The University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, Fresno Medical Education Program (UCSF Fresno) has received a three-year, $511,000 residency training grant to institute a comprehensive diabetes management program in California's Central Valley. The Health Resources Services Administration awarded the grant in an effort to train primary care physicians in rural and underserved areas of the United States.

"The Diabetes Management Program will establish protocols and train residents to manage the disease in vulnerable populations," said Dr. John Zweifler, program director for UCSF Fresno's Family Practice Program. "This is critical for the Central Valley, as Latinos are particularly prone to developing diabetes and more than half of our population is Hispanic."

The Diabetes Management Program will consist of clinician educators, specialty consultants, medical interpreters, medical personnel and behavioral scientists. UCSF Fresno's Family Practice residents will learn to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary diabetes care and employ evidence-based principles.

Distance learning will be a feature of the project under the guidance of UCSF Fresno's Internal Medicine Residency Program. Telemedicine educational programs and on-line assessment of resident knowledge and practice behavior will be implemented.

Zweifler is the principal investigator on the grant. He will work with Dr. Phyllis Preciado, research fellow for UCSF Fresno's Latino Center, and Dr. Michael Peterson, VMC Foundation Endowed Chair in Medicine for UCSF Fresno, to implement the grant.

UCSF Fresno has educated one in every three Central Valley physicians currently practicing in the specialty programs offered. UCSF Fresno offers specialty training in family practice, internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery and obstetrics/gynecology. UCSF Fresno also educates 400 medical students annually.

For more information about the Diabetes Management Program, please log onto www.ucsfresno.edu, or call UCSF Fresno Public Affairs at (559) 243-3606.

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