Kaiser Permanente has selected 13 board members for its new medical school in Pasadena.
The roster includes Kaiser medical executives and Silicon Valley technology leaders, including Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, and Mary Hentges, former chief financial officer of PayPal and CBS Interactive. Dr. Holly J. Humphrey, dean for medical education at the University of Chicago, will serve as board chair.
The move shows Kaiser’s continued emphasis and investment in technology integration and innovation: Kaiser was one of the first to use an electronic medical records system, and in 2015 Kaiser reported 52 percent of its primary care encounters were telemedicine visits, completed by email, phone or video.
Medical students at the Pasadena school will apply what they learn immediately within the Kaiser system, said Dr. Edward M. Ellison, board member and executive medical director of Southern California Permanente Medical Group. Many existing medical schools involve two years of basic science and lots of lectures.
“Medical school education hasn’t changed for a hundred years. Engaging physicians from the very beginning … and teaching them to be a part of our system, that’s something that other medical schools can’t do,” Ellison told the Business Times.
“We knew we wanted to create physicians who will lead care and innovations in the country. We’re integrating that with technology because it allows us to see care everywhere.”
Half of residents stay at Kaiser, and half go elsewhere after completing their training, according to Ellison. The school can accommodate 100 students on campus and is discussing plans to start satellites in other locations.
In 2015, Kaiser said it would open a nonprofit “national school of medicine” in Southern California. The Oakland-based nonprofit system, which trains more than 600 physicians in residency every year, plans to start classes in the fall of 2019. It will start accepting applications in 2018 and expects full enrollment of 192 students by 2022.
HENRY KOTULA 