Thank you for visiting us!

Greetings from the Department of Family Medicine at Harbor-UCLA. May you find fulfillment in the pursuit of all of your dreams.

This program exists in order to assist you in your quest to become a physician. In the process, you will become a lifelong learner and an activist for social change. You will learn how to define your own educational and social needs and you will be offered the opportunity to become active in setting the program's educational and social priorities; you will become a co-owner of the program. In the process of learning how to teach, you will become a better learner and you will be enhanced with leadership skills in preparation for your future role in the community.

You will be exposed to problems common and unique to underserved populations and you will provide primary care to these individuals. Because of their poor access to care, you will encounter very ill patients with long neglected medical needs. You will be guided carefully through an abundance of organic and social pathology and you will have ample opportunity to practice those skills that you need to become an outstanding physician.

Equally important, you will be given the tools that will allow you to analyze and understand the medical and social problems in communities of need. Here, you will find a program united in the belief that health care is a right, not a privilege. We cannot and will not stand idle as the most vulnerable in this society become neglected and forgotten. We are committed to fighting against social injustice and apathy and we have committed ourselves and our program to this struggle.

We are equally committed to excellence in providing you with a structured and balanced training program. This program provides a dynamic forum that integrates the medical, the technical and the psychosocial aspects of care into a continuity and family-based format, with an emphasis on issues of empowerment in underserved communities. This program has developed the unique ability to take the enthusiasm, the idealism and the endurance of its learners and fashion them into a program resource. We have found that there are many opportunities to make a difference. Our residents came with the courage and the strength to make that happen; we give them the tools to ensure that it will.

Daniel Castro M.D.
Chairman
Harbor-UCLA Department of Family Medicine