Graduate Medical Education
Imagine a world where healthcare is an essential provision, where under-resourced and overlooked communities exist not as islands of neglect but as well cared-for communal partners. For over 50 years, Charles R. Drew University’s (CDU) medical students have undertaken this ideal as their goal and mission. Throughout the years, CDU has held steadfast to their commitment to providing the South Los Angeles area with first-rate healthcare services and with the clinicians whose duty it is to help alleviate known healthcare disparities.
In this tradition of service, CDU COM’s Graduate Medical Education programs train highly skilled healthcare providers for service in their communities, whether in this nation or in countries around the world.
CDU was designated as a minority-serving institution by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights and as a Historically Black Graduate Institution (HBGI as designated by Title III B) by the Department of Education. Our university is also a charter member of the Hispanic Serving Health Professions Schools, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving the health welfare of Hispanic people through research initiatives, training opportunities, and academic development. These designations describe a health workforce training institution that is qualified to educate in a diverse and culturally aligned provider network.
CDU’s residencies and fellowships offer a varied array of medical education opportunities. Our aim is to provide state-of-the-art clinical settings within a structured educational environment that promotes both patient health and safety and progressive resident/fellow competencies. Under the guidance of committed professionals, our programs focus on ensuring a workforce driven by compassion, ethics, and forward-focused patient care. Our medical trainees are encouraged throughout their programs to use science-based knowledge of medicine, scholarly research, and their own self-reflective assessment of clinical skills to care for patients that will last well into their medical futures.
CDU’s residency and fellowship programs take advantage of the unique and distinctive characteristics of the South Los Angeles County communities, providing a wealth of learning opportunities. We provide for the health needs of homeless youth, adults, and families; focus on patient-centered team-based healthcare of under-resourced patients; research and apply the notion of community violence as a public health problem; aim for the elimination of social health and illness disparities; and advocate for the democratization of healthcare for special needs, incarcerated and immigrant populations.
Residents trained in these areas develop the aptitudes to master the clinical skills necessary for board certification and to practice healthcare delivery anywhere of their choosing.
CDU COM is a graduate medical education (GME) sponsoring institution accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). As the sponsoring institution, CDU COM provides oversight to ensure safe working conditions for our trainees, the fiscal support for the programs, educational policies, and procedures, and advocates for residents/fellows in their quest to become leading physicians, researchers, and clinicians.
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