Proof of Concept

In the twelve years since it was launched in 2006, the UCLA IMG Program has already made significant, and accelerating, contributions to the training and placement of urgently-needed Family Medicine physicians in rural and inner-urban communities in California.

177 and Counting

Since its first class graduated in 2007, the UCLA IMG Program has placed a total of 177 graduates into Family Medicine residence programs in California—all in medically-underserved communities.

More significant, of all Family Medicine residency placements offered to IMGs in California, UCLA IMG Program graduates have filled upwards of 90% of these spots for the past three years—testament to the strength of the IMG Program’s training model.

Matching the Big 8

The UCLA IMG Program consistently ranks as one of the top annual producers of Family Medicine residents alongside California’s eight allopathic medical schools. Since 2015, UCLA’s IMG Program graduates accounted for more than 10% of all California medical school graduates matching into Family Medicine residencies in the state. And all are fully bilingual and bicultural.

100% Bilingual and Bicultural

The UCLA IMG Program produces high-quality Family Medicine physicians who enter the program fully bilingual and bicultural—skills that the Institute of Medicine has clearly pointed out are key to increasing patient engagement, access, and satisfaction, as well as the quality of care for rural and inner-urban communities.

Qualified and Committed

Our IMG Program alumni have gone on to garner numerous honors, including 12 who have been appointed Chief Resident of their respective residency programs; seven who have won competitive fellowships in HIV/AIDS, Addiction, Geriatrics, and Obstetrics; three who have been named to medical leadership positions; and six who have gone on to earn Family Medicine faculty appointments.

Cost-Effective

By drawing on California’s legal resident and naturalized IMG population, the UCLA IMG Program is able to prepare IMGs from Latin America for California Family Medicine residency training at low cost, and in comparatively short time, significantly boosting the state’s medical education system’s overall ability to meet current needs.

Number of UCLA IMG Program graduates successfully matched into Family Medicine residency programs in California, by year since the program’s first graduating class in 2007.

Graduates of UCLA’s IMG Program make up an increasing proportion of all IMGs matched to Family Medicine residency training programs in California.

Number (and proportion of their graduating class) of medical school graduates who matched into Family Medicine residency programs, by California medical school, 2015. *California’s ninth and newest medical school at UC Riverside admitted their first class in 2013.