MS-1

  • Clinical Foundations with Latino health emphasis
  • Chicano-Latino Studies Seminar
  • Community site visits

MS-2

  • Patient-centered (PACE) clerkship in clinics serving Latino communities
  • Chicano-Latino Studies Seminar
  • Border and Central Valley educational programs

MS-3

  • Clinical rotations in Santa Ana and other underserved locations
  • Chicano-Latino Studies Seminar

International Rotation

  • One-month clinical rotation in Latin America at the conclusion of the MS-3 year

Master's Program

  • MPH, MBA and other master's degree program options are available

MS-4

  • Clinical/away rotations
  • Faculty-student meetings

Over 95% of PRIME-LC students match into their preferred specialty.

For the first three years of the PRIME-LC program, students are enrolled in small-group discussion Chicano-Latino Studies courses that help them think critically about the complicated issues of socioeconomic status, culture and identity that are always present in healthcare.

Chicano-Latino Studies classes provide students with a different perspective that complements the traditional medical school curriculum. Classes are taught in small-group discussion sessions, which allow students to participate in robust conversations on important issues regarding Latino culture and healthcare. Professors from the School of Social Sciences with expertise in anthropology and social ecology help students think critically about the complicated issues of socioeconomic status, culture and identity that are always present in healthcare.

Glenda
"The Department of Chicano/Latino Studies is proud to have faculty whose research and teaching advance a deeper understanding of Latina/o health through a lens that considers structural conditions and cultural competency. Integrating biomedical science with patients’ sociocultural realities is essential to fostering confianza [trust] in the American medical system." -—Glenda M. Flores, PhD, Professor and Chair, UC Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies

Faculty Leader

Belinda Campos, PhD, a professor in the UC Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, leads the development and design of the PRIME-LC Chicano-Latino Studies curriculum.

Read her bio

PRIME-LC students visit the state capitol in Sacramento to advocate for improving healthcare disparities and learn about healthcare policy.

PRIME-LC students visit the U.S.-Mexico border to learn about immigration politics and regulations. Activities include interviewing day laborers and visiting a border cemetery with Border Angels, a local nonprofit.

PRIME-LC students learn about rural healthcare by interviewing migrant farmworkers as well as shadowing physicians at rural clinics in the Central Valley.

PRIME-LC students greeting children in Peru arriving for health screenings

The capstone project for PRIME-LC is an international rotation that allows students to compare patient-physician interactions and health systems in the US and Latin America.

Immediately after their third year, PRIME-LC students travel to Latin America for the four-week international clinical rotation. While there, medical students see patients working alongside residents and attending physicians. Students also gain exposure to tropical medicine and are exposed to a variety of clinical scenarios and advanced pathology they would not generally encounter in their clinical rotations. Instruction from outside clinical faculty gives students a greater understanding, not only of tropical medicine, but also of cultural factors and socio-economic determinants of health that influence populations.

Kara
"I'm so thankful to PRIME-LC for allowing me the opportunity to receive an MPH along with my medical degree. Through my master's degree training, I learned to work with a multidisciplinary mindset by connecting with people around the world, and I gained the tools to address the systemic issues my patients face." -Kara Percival, who received her master's in Public Health from Harvard University and her medical degree from UC Irvine