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For Release: January 10, 2008
Contact: DMS Communications 603-650-1492

Dartmouth Medical School Begins Bi-coastal Teaching Partnership With San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center

California Pacific Medical Center, a new DMS teaching affiliate
California Pacific Medical Center,
a new DMS teaching affiliate

HANOVER, NH—Beginning this month, Dartmouth Medical School has entered a new educational affiliation with California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), one of San Francisco's foremost teaching hospitals, to enrich the breadth of patient care experience for medical students.

The San Francisco collaboration broadens the opportunity for third year DMS medical students to take some of their required clinical clerkships at CPMC, a large, urban academic medical center comprised of four campuses.

CPMC is a major metropolitan hospital with outstanding residency and teaching programs, according to Dr. David Nierenberg, senior associate dean for medical education. "Our students will benefit from the opportunity to experience medicine in such an excellent academic medical center that serves the needs of patients with great diversity of medical diagnoses, backgrounds, cultures and countries of origin," said Nierenberg.

Like their peers, future DMS doctors learn patient care through clerkship rotations in the key clinical medicine disciplines. Students take the lessons they have learned in the classroom and translate them into real-world skills such as how to talk to patients, how to read tests and how to conduct exams.

With completion of a formal affiliation agreement, two DMS students have begun their clerkships in psychiatry this month, working with both inpatient and outpatient departments over seven weeks. Other students will begin their inpatient medicine clerkships in March, and their neurology clerkships in July. Additional clerkships may become available during the coming academic year as well.

"This is a wonderful partnership for both of us," says Dr. Warren Browner, vice president, academic affairs at California Pacific. "It cements CPMC's reputation as a leading teaching hospital; it gives our staff an opportunity to share their skills and experience with the next generation of physicians, and offers students from Dartmouth Medical School a chance to study at one of the finest medical centers in the nation."

Our students will benefit from the opportunity to experience medicine in such an excellent academic medical center that serves the needs of patients with great diversity of medical diagnoses, backgrounds, cultures and countries of origin.

—Dr. David Nierenberg

As more clinical clerkships come "on line" over time, Nierenberg anticipates that eventually a majority of third year students will have the opportunity to take one of their clinical clerkships at this urban medical center. The new educational liaison complements the first-rate clinical training students currently receive at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center and at a variety of hospital and practice sites, particularly in rural New Hampshire and Vermont.

Discussions for the affiliation began about a year ago, when CPMC communicated that their faculty and residents desired to teach more medical students in major clerkships on a continuous and scheduled basis. Based on experiences of the early student cohort, DMS will work to optimize rotations and learning opportunities at CPMC for all students.

"We look forward to exploring a shared vision of expanded options at CPMC," added Nierenberg. "In the future, DMS students may also benefit from more options for their fourth-year clinical electives, and greater insight into residency opportunities in the San Francisco area hospitals." Additional interactions in the basic and clinical sciences are anticipated to help forge a platform for education and research excellence into the future.

More about CPMC is at: http://www.cpmc.org

-DMS-

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