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THE CHARLES R. DREW
POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL

DREW AND THE REGION IT SERVES

On August 3rd, 1966, the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School was formally incorporated as a private, non-profit institution. This took place in accordance with the recommendations of the McCone Commission study of the 1965 civil rights disturbances in Watts. The Charles Drew Medical Society, the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Medical Association, along with the University of California at Los Angeles and University Of Southern California Schools of Medicine served as the co-founders of the Drew School.

The Drew School was established as the education and research arm of the Martin Luther King, Jr. General Hospital to service the Southeast Health Region. King Hospital is operated by the Department of Health Services of the County of Los Angeles. The Drew School is adjacent to the King Hospital and is governed by a 19 member Board of Directors.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

The Drew School has 11 academic departments which are affiliated with either the UCLA or USC Schools of Medicine. Resident physician training at Drew School is now offered in 13 major specialties - Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Community Medicine, Psychiatry, Obstetrics-Gynecology, General Surgery, Ophthalmology, Orthopedic Surgery, Oral Surgery, Radiology, Otolaryncology, and Anesthesiology. Two hundred and eighteen resident physicians completed their postgraduate training at the Drew School through 1977.

Clinical clerkships are offered to students from other medical schools. More than 100 students have taken advantage of these rotating clerkships. Although a preponderant number of the students have come from medical schools within California, out of state institutions including Dartmouth, Harvard, Howard, Meharry and Tufts have also had students represented.

The Drew Continuing Professional Education Program provides courses for physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and other practitioners from the Southeast Health Region to update, refine, and extend knowledge regarding improving health care.

The Drew MEDEX-Physician's Assistant Program, the first such program in California, provides 15 months of intensive training to develop new professional manpower for the improvement of health care delivery. In this new approach to providing primary care, the Physician's Assistance works directly with community physicians and caring for patients. Drew School has graduated 220 Physician's Assistants, most of whom are serving in the Southeast Health Region and other medically underserved areas.

COMMUNITY SERVICES PROGRAMS
These programs cover a spectrum of community concerns, including sickle cell anemia, hypertension, and the need for child care. Development disabilities, infant mortality, and substance abuse rank high on the list of socioeconomic and physiologic ills that preclude many people from effectively entering the health care system.

Major community projects in substance abuse are operated by the Drew School's Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior through the JAMMA Drug Treatment Program and the Place of Family Alcoholism Program.

Other health projects include the Perinatal Regionalization program operated by the Drew School's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality in the Southeast Health Services Region of the County of Los Angeles.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

The first academic department established at the Drew School was in Community Medicine. The Department of Community Medicine conducts health services delivery research, demonstration projects, and provides epidemiological and demographic data on the Southeast Region as well as other statistical and data processing services to academic departments within the School.

The Office of Research Programs administers biomedical and clinical sciences research grants at Drew School which includes the distribution of institutional research funds for faculty research.

The Fanon Research and Development Center is a national research Institute associated with Drew's Department of Psychiatry. It consists of multidisciplinary teams which focus on the special problems of Black children and families in minority communities.

PLANS
Undergraduate Medical Education
The plan to establish an undergraduate medical education program in 1981 at Drew is a direct response to community concerns and aspirations. Such a program will enable medical education to achieve care objectives by rectifying the deficit of health manpower in medically underserved areas, particularly the inner city. In addition, undergraduate medical education will expand career opportunities for minorities and women. A program to accomplish these goals has been developed in cooperation with the University of California.

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