Program
People
PlacesResearch
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 choose
world-class researchers at UCLA for research
opportunities. 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.
Academics
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 seven UCLA-associated teaching hospitals for 8 of the last 9 years! We’re very proud of that fact and work hard to maintain our excellence, reflect and improve. We have several daily didactic sessions for our housestaff:
- Noon conference covers the basics of general internal medicine and sub-specialty medicine, and also includes monthly Journal Club (evidence-based medicine and statistics), Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality reports, IM/EM conference, EKG conference and more. We have a separate Curriculum Committee that monitors the evaluations of all the lectures. Any lecture that receives less than a 4.5 score (out of 5) is flagged for review, and feedback is given to the speaker. We have very high standards for our lecture series.
- Ambulatory medicine conference encompasses practical outpatient topics, which are 15 minute focused clinical presentations ("chalk talks") by faculty and senior residents for housestaff in our Ambulatory Medicine rotation.
- Morning report is run by our Chief Residents daily for housestaff on the ward rotations. The Chiefs find interesting and instructional cases, and discussions are educational and collegial, not a “pimping” session. Toward the end of each case, there is substantial faculty participation as well. ACLS training and Hematopathology conference are also regularly scheduled as part of the morning report series. Our morning reports are considered one of the highlights of our program.