The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Fresno Medical Education Program and the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine and School of Nursing have been selected to participate in a three-year, grant-funded program that seeks to help faculty teams better prepare medical students and allied professionals to work together in patient-centered medical homes. The two schools are among nine nationwide institutions to participate in the Professionals Accelerating Clinical and Educational Redesign (PACER) program.

“The (PACER) program will enhance our knowledge and skills to provide and teach interprofessional, team-based, comprehensive and continuous health care with the goal of achieving maximized health outcomes for patients at the Deran Koligian Ambulatory Care Center as a patient-centered medical home at Community Regional Medical Center,” said Serena Yang, M.D., associate clinical professor for UCSF Fresno Department of Pediatrics and team leader for UCSF Fresno’s PACER program.

At UCSF Fresno, the grant will allow for faculty members to educate future doctors of the importance of the team approach to medicine, Dr. Yang said. Medical staff from internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics will be the core of care, but that treatment will also be enhanced by including pharmacists, nurses, mental health therapists and sub-specialists who will work as a team with the primary care practitioners. The team also will take advantage of electronic health records to communicate.

The focal point of the new training efforts at UC Davis take place at the School of Medicine’s Transforming Education and Community Health (TEACH) clinic. The clinic does much of its work for underserved communities at Sacramento County’s Primary Care Center. Plans are underway to incorporate the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis' physician assistant and nurse practitioner programs into TEACH to create the PACER interprofessional training team.

PACER is funded by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, with matching funding from the Boards of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The project is implemented and evaluated by educational researchers in the department of family medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.