Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium Program

Program Identity & Fit

Loma Linda's Neurosurgery Residency is a small, one-per-year, faith-based academic program embedded in a tertiary/quaternary referral center that is the sole such facility serving over 4.6 million people across San Bernardino and Riverside counties, giving residents outsized exposure to a large, medically underserved catchment area. Clinical training draws on a Level 1 trauma center, a Joint Commission Comprehensive Stroke Program, and an NAEC Level 4 epilepsy center, with a deliberately low faculty-to-resident ratio intended to personalize operative experience. The seven-year curriculum permits up to 18 months of elective time supported by NIH-funded departmental labs, and alumni outcomes show near-universal pursuit of subspecialty fellowships (spine, cerebrovascular, pediatric, skull base) before entering academic, community hospital, or private practice roles across the country. The program is explicit about its Seventh-day Adventist mission of service and healing, and structures itself around graduated procedural autonomy (documented case minimums per PGY level) rather than research output as the primary marker of readiness.