University of California Davis Health Program

Program Identity & Fit

UC Davis PM&R is a university-based academic program anchored at a 600-bed Level 1 trauma center in Sacramento, with residents spending roughly 70% of training at the main medical center and its ambulatory clinics, supplemented by the VA Northern California, Kaiser Permanente, and Shriners Children's Northern California for pediatric rehabilitation exposure. The program offers a broad subspecialty faculty base (SCI, pediatric rehab, neuromuscular medicine, sports medicine, spine, EMG, brain injury) and a large electrodiagnostic laboratory performing over 1200 studies annually, with EMG and other subspecialty exposure deliberately spaced longitudinally across PGY2-4 rather than blocked. Research is a mandatory, structured component: residents must complete an independent project through to manuscript preparation, present at a senior Grand Rounds, and are encouraged toward national presentation and publication, supported by a dedicated Director of Resident Research and labs such as BRaIN. The program states its aim is to produce comprehensive physiatrists ready for either autonomous practice or competitive fellowship match, reflecting a dual community-practice and academic/fellowship orientation built around low resident-to-faculty ratios and pediatric, SCI, and neuromuscular depth.