UC and Health

The University of California is improving the health of Californians and citizens across the nation in a variety of ways.
UC operates the nation's largest health science and medical training program with over 13,000 students annually enrolled in 15 health sciences professional education programs, including schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, public health, and veterinary medicine. UC trains one-half of the medical students in California.

UC-based training and research provide the most advanced medical care available, teach the doctors, nurses and other health professionals who will deliver health care in other settings, translate medical discoveries into new treatments, and care for a large portion of the nation's uninsured.

UC's five medical centers receive more than 138,000 inpatient discharges, 261,000 emergency room visits and more than 3.6 million outpatient visits each year. The UC health system operates Level I trauma centers in several regions of the state. A major provider to uninsured and underinsured patients in Sacramento, San Diego and Orange Counties, the UC system also has relationships with more than 100 affiliated Veterans Affairs, county and community-based health facilities throughout California.

UC is the fifth-largest health care delivery system in California, with 34,000+ health care professionals on staff who provide $4 billion worth of patient care annually.

The university administers several state-funded health research programs on AIDS, breast cancer, and tobacco-related diseases and provides multi-disciplinary geriatrics training, education, and research through its Academic Geriatric Resource Program. UC's entire San Francisco campus is devoted to health sciences training and research programs.

In addition to health-related research and treatment programs at all of UC's campuses, several campuses—including programs from Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco—also play substantial roles in providing health care services to San Joaquin Valley residents and training medical professionals in the Valley.

At the request of the state, UC is also frequently involved in health policy research. Two such initiatives include California Program on Access to Care, which addresses issues related to access to health care for the working poor and low-income households in agricultural and rural areas, and the California-Mexico Health Initiative, which coordinates and optimizes the access to health services by migrants and their families.