Paging doctors-in-training to help solve L.A.’s medical dilemmas

Most UCLA medical students are up to their stethoscopes in work—boning up on behavioral neuroscience, getting hands-on experience in local hospitals and clinics, preparing to hit the books for this spring’s dreaded “boards.”

But for the past 14 years, a hardy band of second-year students has taken on even more—like tackling some of the biggest issues in health care today.

The student-run UCLA Health Care Symposium, which began in 1997, has targeted topics ranging from stem cell research to the high cost of prescription drugs. This year’s symposium, to be held Saturday, Jan. 23 at Covel Commons on the UCLA Campus, will tackle an issue closer to home: health care disparities in L.A.

They could have looked nationally, or even globally. But they saw Los Angeles as a better-than-textbook example of health care inequities—a place where a 15-minute drive can transport you between extremes of wealth and poverty.

“Bridging the Divide: Practical Health Care Solutions for Los Angeles,” which is the focus chosen by the five student directors charged with running this year’s conference, will feature speakers and a panel discussion exploring the issue from a variety of demographic, clinical and policy perspectives.

“We just felt that sometimes it’s important to look in your own backyard,” said one of the directors, Michael Safaee, 23. “What can we as students do to make a difference? The first way to attack a problem is to understand it.”

The conference, expected to draw between 300 and 400 people, is free and open to the public, with advance registration encouraged. The student directors worked closely with an advisory board headed by Dr. Gerald S. Levey, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Levey, who is stepping down as dean, established the public forum after a group of students approached him with the idea. “He wanted to give the students a venue to ask important questions,” Safaee said.

This year’s student directors credit their predecessors with setting up a good infrastructure to help with logistics and fundraising. But they’ve come up with some innovations of their own—such as an interactive registration process in which audience members can send in questions for the speakers along with their own ideas for creating better access to healthcare in Los Angeles. The ideas will be projected onto screens during the event, and “some of the ones we liked the best will be printed out on sheets at every table to get people talking,” said Neelroop Parikshak, 24, who is handling logistics for the symposium.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who previously addressed the symposium in 2000 and 2007,will deliver this year’s keynote address. Other speakers include Dr. David M. Carlisle, Director of the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and Dr. Hector Flores, Chairman of the Family Medicine Department at White Memorial Medical Center. Loretta Jones, Founder and Executive Director of Healthy African American Families II, and Yasser Aman, CEO and President of University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic, will take part in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Patrick Dowling, Chair of the UCLA Department of Family Medicine.