University of California Davis Health Program

Program Identity & Fit

UC Davis is a university-based academic internal medicine program anchored at a 630-bed tertiary/quaternary academic medical center and Level 1 trauma center, with continuity training spread across Kaiser Permanente, the Sacramento VA, and Sacramento County's safety-net clinic serving Medi-Cal, uninsured, and undocumented patients—giving residents deliberately heterogeneous exposure across payer systems and acuity levels. Research is structurally embedded rather than optional: a longitudinal, multi-year research track begun in intern year, NIH T32 and R38 (StARR) funding, and named research mentors support residents pursuing fellowship or physician-scientist paths, while the IMPACCT initiative and Primary Care track reflect a parallel, explicit commitment to underserved, rural, and integrated behavioral-health-focused primary care. The program explicitly frames its identity around pluripotency—training hospitalists, subspecialists, primary care physicians, clinician-educators, and clinician-scientists from the same base—rather than funneling toward a single outcome, and values holistic contributions including community engagement, life experience, and diversity of background alongside clinical performance. A Military Track (Air Force, David Grant Medical Center) and combined Med/Psych pathway further signal structural flexibility for distinct career trajectories within one program.