University of California Community Health Conference

To give University of California (UC) medical students a platform to exchange ideas on community health projects, while simultaneously building the UC medical school community, and empowering one another to become exceptional future physicians of California. 

Traditionally, medicine has sought to teach the science of illness. Over the course of our education we become entranced with memorizing countless mechanisms and pathways of disease processes. Indirectly emphasizing that our most valuable intervention as physicians is when patients are already sick. However, many of us attending UC medical schools have had rich experiences in community leadership, volunteering, and advocacy; exemplifying our desire to provide holistic community centered care. It is essential to provide UC medical students with the space to think not only about pathophysiology, but the social determinants of health that exist in our communities that often transcend the walls of our hospitals and clinics. 

The University of California Community Health Conference (UCCHC) stands to argue that reigniting our passions for community health is equally as important as the core science education we receive, and worth sharing with each other. This conference will serve as a reminder to UC medical students to meet patients where they are at, not where we are. As future physicians, it would be a mistake to undervalue the context in which patients are arriving at our clinics. As a clear relationship exists between communities, where roots of health problems often reside, and our patients, where these ailments take a tangible form. The creation of this conference will serve to encourage medical students to think about how involvement in our communities is vital to the longevity of our future patients.

Our argument for the creation of a UCCHC is that in exchanging ideas and programs that exist at different UCs, we will inspire each other to think critically about the challenges that exist in our respective UC communities and support each other in future endeavors to address them. In essence, this conference creates the opportunity for inter-UC collaboration that will benefit the varying health needs of Californians.

Although we are one UC system, our respective UCs rarely interact. Our sister universities have become estranged over the years with different curriculums, cultures and communities of medical students. An additional aim of the UC medical school conference will be to reacquaint the UC medical students with each other and promote the formation of relationships between future colleagues. Graduates of UC medical schools should be able to come together as working physicians and present as a united front to not only Californians but to the rest of the United States as leaders in medicine.

In conclusion, we would like to invite UC medical students to come to UC Davis for one weekend to share their experiences in community health. In the future we hope that each UC can rotate in hosting the next UCCHC, sharing the responsibility and privilege of bringing UC medical students together for an annual conference. The University of California Community Health Conference will serve as a unique opportunity for UC medical students to collaborate, learn, and build lasting relationships with each other as we continue to share the common goal of improving healthcare across California for all.