The Veterans Hospital in Fresno was UCSF Fresno’s first home five decades ago, bonding two organizations with a shared mission to care for veterans and to train future physicians.
UCSF Fresno’s longstanding partnership with VA Fresno Medical Center dates back to 1975 when UCSF Fresno was established with support from the California Legislature and the VA to address the severe physician shortage in the San Joaquin Valley.
Through this partnership, the VA has recruited specialists and welcomed residency and fellowship programs. And today, UCSF Fresno is the largest academic physician training program between Sacramento and Los Angeles.
Wessel Meyer, MD, UCSF Clinical Professor at UCSF Fresno, and acting Chief of Staff at the VA Central California Health Care System, oversees health profession training education, including UCSF Fresno residents and fellows at VA Fresno Medical Center.
“The affiliation with UCSF Fresno is what allows us to provide world-class care to our veterans,” said Dr. Meyer. “That strong academic affiliation provides us with cutting-edge technology, the latest evidence-based guidelines, and our ability to directly affect the outcomes of our veteran patients as a result.”
UCSF Fresno proudly serves veterans in the Valley. Residents and attending faculty provide patient care at the VA, which broadens residency and fellow training. Every year, residents and fellows from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, the Department of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery rotate at the VA, providing care for more than 29,000 veterans.
“The VA has established programs and resources specifically designed to address the broader needs of veterans beyond their immediate medical complaints,” said Stacy Sawtelle Vohra, MD, assistant dean for Graduate Medical Education and designated institutional official at UCSF Fresno. “This prioritization of holistic, patient-centered care contributes significantly to the education of our future physician workforce.”
Dr. Meyer said, “We’ve seen significant growth in the services we provide to our veterans. From primary care to specialty care, surgical care to mental health care, and part of that growth is because of the fact that we are affiliated with UCSF Fresno.”
Roman Roque, DO, MPH, completed a four-year residency program in Psychiatry at UCSF Fresno and graduated in 2024. After graduation, he joined the VA Central California Health Care System's Substance Use Disorders Program as a staff psychiatrist and also serves as an assistant clinical professor with the UCSF Fresno Department of Psychiatry.
“The department is a place where it felt like people really cared about you personally and professionally, but also, the work that we do here is making an impact on the community, even as a resident. So, it was easy for me to picture myself being here right after residency,” said Dr. Roque.
Dr. Roque said the Psychiatry resident training at the VA is structured with intention and includes medicine and neurology rotations in the first half of the internship year, followed by months of emergency psychiatry, consultation psychiatry, and inpatient psychiatry. The training then continues for a year of outpatient clinics in general mental health, geriatric psychiatry, and addiction.
This year, the VA is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and in collaboration with UCSF Fresno, it is exploring more opportunities to expand and support the growth or initiation of training programs, including fellowships.
Established in 1975, UCSF Fresno is celebrating 50 years of training doctors and improving health in the San Joaquin Valley this year. A regional campus of the UCSF School of Medicine, UCSF Fresno offers training in eight medical residency programs, one dental surgery residency program and 20 Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and non-ACGME sub-specialty fellowships. UCSF Fresno plays a vital role in expanding access to health care in the Valley, training physicians and medical students for the region and state, conducting research that addresses regional health issues, and academically preparing students from the San Joaquin Valley to pursue careers in health and medicine.
