Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., a distinguished professor of health and health care in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, UC San Francisco, will present a lecture at UC Riverside that addresses the need of another medical school in California.

The lecture, titled "Does California need another medical school? If so, what kind?", will take place at 4:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 23, in room E, UC Riverside Extension, 1200 University Avenue, Riverside, Calif. The presentation is free and open to the public, with seating available on a first-come basis.

Currently, the Inland Empire has the lowest number of primary care and specialist physicians per 100,000 in California. Moreover, only a quarter of California's physicians are trained in the state.

A UC Riverside School of Medicine, if approved, would help serve a medically underserved region in California and increase the number of physicians in the state. It will be the first research-based medical school in California in 40 years and the first new medical school in the United States in the 21st century.

The campus already has more than 70 faculty conducting research in health-related fields, with an additional 40 new faculty positions in health/biomedical research committed by 2010. Moreover, the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences already provides the first two years of medical school.

At UCSF, Dr. Schroeder also heads the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. Having graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, he trained in internal medicine at the Harvard Medical Service of Boston City Hospital and in epidemiology as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control. Prior to joining UCSF, he held faculty appointments at Harvard University and George Washington University.

Dr. Schroeder has published extensively in the fields of clinical medicine, health care financing and organization, prevention, public health, and the work force. He currently serves as chair of the American Legacy Foundation and of the International Review Committee of the Ben Gurion School of Medicine. He serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine, and is a member of the Harvard Overseers, the Save Ellis Island Foundation, and the Council of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Schroeder has been awarded six honorary doctoral degrees.

Physicians attending Dr. Schroeder's lecture at UCR may report one hour of Category 1 credit toward the California Medical Association's Certificate in Continuing Medical Education and the American Medical Association's Physician's Recognition Award. Through the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences and UC Riverside Extension, UCR provides CMA-accredited continuing medical education to physicians through seminars, conferences and courses.

Nurses attending the lecture may receive California Board of Registered Nursing continuing education credit. The presentation is approved for BRN continuing education credit for one contact hour.

The lecture is presented by UCR's Health Sciences Initiative under the banner "The Design of New Medical Schools in the 21st Century." For additional information on the lecture, please call Eppi Azzaretto at 951-827-4334 or email eppi.azzaretto@ucr.edu. For information on other speakers in the seminar series, visit www.ucr.edu.