Golf tournament to benefit UC Davis medical exchange program

An organization of students and faculty physicians at the UC Davis School of Medicine that is dedicated to exchanging medical knowledge with medical schools abroad is seeking entrants for a benefit golf tournament on Sunday, June 11, at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club.

Proceeds from the tournament will benefit Medical Intercultural Opportunities for Students (MEDICOS), which seeks to prepare doctors of the future to address patients and medical conditions from around the globe, so that these physicians are equipped to serve whatever population they find themselves in, whether locally or abroad.

The registration fee for the tournament is $175 per golfer or $600 for a group of four. Different sponsorship levels also are available. The online site to register for the event is at http://jkcevents.com/select.cfm.

Formed two years ago, MEDICOS has allied with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN), a medical school in Leon, Nicaragua. Through the collaboration, UC Davis medical students have traveled to Nicaragua to gain first-hand exposure to the region’s culture, language and medical practices. Subsequently, MEDICOS financed a trip by two faculty physicians from UNAN to the School of Medicine in Davis and UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

MEDICOS representatives also have established contacts with the Ministerio de Salud, the governmental health agency of Nicaragua, and are exploring the possibility of making the MEDICOS program a permanent part of the curricula at both the UC Davis School of Medicine and UNAN.

Proceeds from the golf tournament will be used to fund further trips by medical students and physicians between UC Davis and Nicaragua, and to strengthen the ties between the School of Medicine and UNAN. For more information on MEDICOS, go to the Web at http://cim.ucdavis.edu/mdphd/medicosframeset.htm.