UCLA - Olive View

     The Olive View Program is housed in the 250 bed Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.  This facility is in Sylmar and was opened in 1987.  Both in and out patients are cared for at this site.  In addition, there is a solely outpatient facility in Van Nuys, the Mid-Valley Clinic (located about 7 miles from the hospital).  For the purposes of Fellowship training in Gastroenterology, this latter facility is used as a surrogate health maintenance organization. The training program as a whole is concerned with the delivery of gastroenterologic care and services to resource-limited institutions.

     The OV Program experience stresses independent, critical thinking and personal responsibility. The focus of the educational experience is on using clinical skills and judgment in conjunction with information from the literature to make medical (gastroenterologic) decisions.  As a result, the emphasis on the trainee is to undertake diagnostic or therapeutic interventions that will make a difference.  Within this framework, there are ample opportunities for advanced endoscopic training and for clinical research.  The trainee will also benefit from the skills gained in performing thorough clinical appraisals (histories and physical examinations), creating rational differential diagnoses, understanding the principles of testing strategy, and using evidence-based medicine.