Opportunities to participate in clinical, basic science, and health services research are readily available in our program. Research opportunities are important for many residents, especially those pursuing competitive fellowships. About two-thirds of our graduating seniors pursue and are accepted into sub-specialty fellowships, many here in the Los Angeles area. All of our sub-specialty Divisions are active in clinical research, with many research opportunities available at Olive View. For example, our hospital is a national “Center of Excellence for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Chagas Disease”, and our Cardiology Division is actively involved in research on the prevalence and cardiac effects of Chagas. Our Hematology-Oncology Division is involved in multiple studies on breast cancer (e.g., testing for BRCA1/2 in the underserved population), and our General Internal Medicine Division is partnering with our Podiatrists on several studies to treat diabetic ulcers including novel gene therapies. This is a small sampling of the clinical research within the Olive View Department of Medicine.
While some of our sub-specialty Divisions are also involved in basic science research (e.g., Rheumatology, Nephrology), we have many more opportunities for basic science and clinical research at our sister hospital at the UCLA Westwood campus. In fact, the Program Directors at Olive View and UCLA maintain a catalogue of all the UCLA researchers for just this purpose. Olive View housestaff can look up world-class researchers at UCLA and simply email or call the investigators to get involved. We find this to be the best of both worlds - clinical training at Olive View and opportunities for research at both Olive View and UCLA. In addition, each house officer is assigned a faculty mentor to help with his or her professional (research and/or clinical) pursuits.
Olive View is well known for its clinical teaching and academics. You should know that UCLA medical students have voted the Olive View inpatient clerkship as the best inpatient experience of all the UCLA-associated teaching hospitals for 6 of the last seven years! We’re very proud of that fact and work hard to maintain our excellence and to always change and improve. We have several daily didactic sessions for our housestaff:
ses, and discussions are educational and collegial, not a “pimping” session. Toward the end of each case, there is substantial faculty participation as well. Monthly ACLS training and hematopathology conference are also scheduled as part of the morning report series. Our morning reports are considered one of the highlights of our program. List of sample Morning Report cases. The Residency Program is very involved in local and national academic professional societies such as the SGIM (Society for General Internal Medicine) and the ACP (American College of Physicians). Because of the abundance of interesting clinical cases at Olive View, many cases are presented at National meetings. In fact, we usually send 10-15 interns and residents each year to the National SGIM meeting for poster and/or oral presentations! The program pays for registration, airfare and lodging. In 2008-2009, our Program Director, Dr. Soma Wali, was the chairman of the Clinical Vignettes Committee for the national SGIM meeting in Miami, and our Chief of Medicine, Dr. Dennis Cope, was the chairman of the Clinical Updates Committee. Dr. Cope is also the Governor of the Regional (Southern California) ACP, and is President of the American Academies of Chiefs & Chairs of Internal Medicine.
Health Sciences Library
The Joseph K. Indenbaum, M.D. Health Sciences Library at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center contains hundreds of on-line journals and textbooks. Our full-time library staff will assist you with literature searches. All computer terminals in the hospital have been upgraded to provide high-speed internet access and are available in all wards, clinics, call rooms and the housestaff lounge. The hospital subscribes to UpToDate, MDConsult, Visual Dx and many other databases that are easily accessable. Additionally, the UCLA Biomedical Library is available for our interns and residents.
