UCSF Fresno: 50 Years of Training Doctors and Improving Health in the San Joaquin Valley

The UCSF School of Medicine regional campus in Fresno (UCSF Fresno) has its roots in a historic Fresno family. Milo E. Rowell, a World War II lawyer who contributed to drafting Japan's revised constitution after the war, returned to Fresno to practice law and later became a leader in the grassroots movement to bring the UCSF medical education program to the San Joaquin Valley.

Milo E. Rowell Credit: Rowell family

Today, Rowell would be pleased to see UCSF Fresno hosting annual commencements for over 100 residents and fellows. Many of these graduates choose to remain in the Valley, serving as physician leaders who provide high-quality patient care, conduct clinical research to improve health and wellbeing, teach future generations of physicians, and continue their medical education.

Rowell's commitment to a well-trained physician workforce was influenced by his childhood, spent with his granduncle, Chester Rowell, MD, a prominent Fresno physician and the first president of the Fresno County Medical Society. Dr. Chester Rowell also served as Fresno's fourth mayor and was a California state senator. After his death in 1912, the community honored him with a statue in Courthouse Park.

In 1970, Milo Rowell was appointed chair of the San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium, established to build on a Carnegie Commission report recommending Fresno for a University Health Science Center. In 1972, Rowell and Consortium members testified at a California Assembly Select Committee on Health Manpower alongside UCSF's Associate Dean William Reinhardt, MD, who highlighted the collaboration between UCSF and the Fresno VA hospital.

The Commission’s report helped the consortium to successfully apply for federal funds to establish an Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in the central San Joaquin Valley to support health professions training. From there, the consortium pursued a UC medical education program for the Valley, leading to a formal affiliation with the Veterans Administration in June 1975, which included $2 million for a new UCSF medical education building at the Fresno VA hospital.

Today, residents and fellows at UCSF Fresno rotate at the VA from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, the Department of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, providing care for more than 25,000 veterans each year.

Mrs. Milo E. Rowell

In recognition of his contributions, Milo Rowell received a UCSF Medal in 1976, the University’s highest honor. He passed away in 1977, and in 1981, the medical education building at the Fresno VA Hospital was named in his honor.

“UCSF Fresno was established with a clear mission: to serve the public by addressing the health care needs of an underserved population in a region facing a critical shortage of physicians,” said Talmadge E. King, Jr., MD, Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. “UCSF Fresno’s commitment to excellence in patient care aligns with its dedication to training the next generation of health care leaders. UCSF Fresno strives to make a lasting impact on the health of the San Joaquin Valley through excellence in teaching, patient care, innovative clinical research, and community partnerships. The institution emphasizes a culture of empathy and mutual respect, promoting equitable access to education and opportunity.”

Milo Rowell witnessed the beginnings of a medical training center in the Valley, but today, he would be impressed by its growth and impact. The UCSF School of Medicine Fresno campus, established in 2005 in downtown Fresno, is the largest academic physician training program between San Francisco and Sacramento to the north and Los Angeles to the south. 

In 1979, a group of physicians employed by Fresno County came together to start the Central California Faculty Medical Group, now known as Inspire Health Medical Group. Today, UCSF Fresno boasts more than 200 core faculty members, many are in the medical group, and an additional 300 physicians with volunteer appointments train residents in eight medical specialties: Family and Community Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Psychiatry, and Surgery, along with a dental residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The campus also offers advanced training in 20 sub-specialties.   

“Graduates of our program are providing care in hospitals, clinics, and community health centers from Bakersfield to Sacramento, and throughout the state and nation,” said Stacy Sawtelle Vohra, MD, Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at UCSF Fresno. “Our residents and fellows develop a deep commitment to our community, and 41% of our core faculty are graduates of our residency and fellowship programs.”

Although UCSF Fresno was initially focused on graduate medical education, it began training medical students in the 1990s through the Model Fresno program, which evolved into the Longitudinal Integrated Fresno Experience. These initiatives laid the groundwork for today’s comprehensive undergraduate medical education.

UCSF Fresno has also been at the forefront of helping prepare middle and high school students and, most recently, community college and university students for medical careers through various pathway programs. Its decades-old Doctors Academy and Junior Doctors Academy for high school and middle school students in Fresno and Caruthers are admired state and nationwide.

UCSF Fresno is committed to improving health for all by providing high-quality patient care, education, and research while collaborating with community partners to address health care disparities. The campus has established affiliations with numerous health care organizations, such as  Inspire Health Medical Group, Family HealthCare Network and Community Health System including Community Regional Medical Center, the largest acute-care and trauma hospital in the central San Joaquin Valley. These partnerships enrich the learning environment for trainees. Over the past five decades, UCSF Fresno has evolved to meet the region's needs and develop a physician workforce that reflects the diverse communities in the Valley.

“It is hard to overstate the impact of the University of California, San Francisco, on the quality of health care in the Valley. It is the stamp of UCSF,” said John Blossom, MD, a UCSF faculty emeritus in Family and Community Medicine and a member of the UCSF School of Medicine Class of 1970. Dr. Blossom completed his Family Medicine residency at UCSF Fresno in 1974 and joined our faculty in 1976, serving in various leadership roles.