UCSF’s University Community Partnerships Dinner: A Celebration of Collaboration

Last night UCSF hosted its third annual University Community Partnerships (UCP) Celebration at Genentech Hall on the UCSF Mission Bay Campus. Keynote Speaker Estela Garcia, Executive Director of the Instituto Familiar de la Raza, spoke on the role of collaboration in the health of our communities: “Collaboration can strengthen our efforts and increase our capacity to serve our communities; only in this way will we attain true health equity.”  The Office of University Community Partnerships exists to facilitate collaborative relationships between the University and local community organizations. In addition to acting as liaison, helping university partners and local organizations work with each other, UCP is also a grantmaker, which has funded collaborations since 2008. This year alone, the UCP funded 18 partnerships, ranging in focus from health and family services to education and economic initiatives.

St. Anthony Medical Clinic is proud to have been a 2011 Large Grant Recipient in this innovative program with the collaboration “IMPROVE: Improving Management and Patient Respiratory Outcomes through Validated Education: Asthma and COPD.” For several years, SAMC and UCSF School of Pharmacy have been building a successful relationship through both the Telepharmacy program (a key component of the Diabetes Clinic) as well as through the Asthma & COPD clinic.  Project IMPROVE is designed to help patients take control of their asthma and COPD through education and self-management skills. It is the only asthma program offering patient education by a certified asthma educator for uninsured patients in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The Asthma & COPD Clinic benefits not only the target community, but also the community of San Francisco as a whole, as future pharmacists participate in culturally, demographically, and linguistically appropriate clinical care of asthma and COPD patients.

The UCP Celebration illustrated the great work being done through these collaborations, particularly by the winners of the Excellence in Partnership Awards including: UCSF MedLink, a collaboration between UCSF and USF Upward Bound; Painting Healthier Smiles, a collaboration of UCSF School of Dentistry and the SF Department of Public Health; and Physical Activity Referrals to the Community, a joint effort of UCSF WATCH Clinic and Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. Collaborations like these underscore how much we can accomplish when we work together with respect and appreciation for the diversity of resources that already exist in our city.

(in photo: Nurse Jackie Mojigo with a patient in the Asthma Clinic.)