Healthcare Administration, Leadership and Management (HALM) Fellowship for Physicians

The UC San Diego Healthcare Administration, Leadership and Management (HALM) Fellowship is a two-year ACGME-accredited training program for early-career physicians interested in health care leadership.

The fellowship is offered by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at UC San Diego Health — a leading, three-campus academic health system center in San Diego and La Jolla, California.

The UC San Diego HALM fellowship program will prepare trainees to be successful leaders in a wide range of organizations. The curriculum includes project-based training, didactic education and experiential learning opportunities. A major focus of the program is system-level quality and patient safety, and fellows will get certification in Lean/Six Sigma.

Application Process

The application deadline is Oct. 31, 2024, for the program starting July 1, 2025. Please send items to Rose Buan at rbuan@health.ucsd.edu. Your application will be reviewed once it is complete. Application components include:

Current CV

Personal statement to describe your interest in the HALM fellowship (1-2 pages)

Current and official medical school academic transcript

Two letters of recommendation — one from a leader who can speak to your leadership potential and one that describes your clinical skills

Eligibility

Fellows must be board-eligible in any clinical specialty. The primary training site is UC San Diego Health. International medical graduates are eligible to apply for the fellowship if they are U.S. board-eligible in their primary specialty. 

Sample Curriculum

Fellows participate in 12 two-month rotations (see example below). In addition, fellows will participate in the UC San Diego Health Leadership Academy and will obtain a Green Belt or higher in Lean/Six Sigma training that includes a quality/patient safety project.

Year 1

  • Quality & Safety
  • Hospital Operations/Patient Flow
  • Medical Staff Affairs
  • Information Services
  • Transformational Health
  • Surgical/Perioperative Workflows

Year 2

  • Ambulatory Operations
  • Clinical Governance
  • Finance & Budgeting
  • Health System Strategy
  • Community Relations
  • HR/Workforce Management

HALM Fellowship Team

Robert El-Kareh, MD, MPH, MS – Program Director
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Transformation and Learning
Executive Director, Continuing Professional Development

Christopher Longhurst, MD, MS – Associate Program Director
Chief Clinical and Innovation Officer, System Chief Medical Officer
Executive Director, Jacobs Center for Health Innovation

Ming Tai-Seale, PhD, MPH – Associate Program Director
Principal Investigator, UC San Diego Center for Learning Health Systems Science
Director of Research and Learning & Director of Outcomes Analysis and Scholarship

Additional Faculty

Donna Beifus, RN, MPA
Chief Administrative Officer, Care Management

Crystal Cene, MD, MPH
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Health Equity
Chief Administrative Officer, Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Brian Clay, MD
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Inpatient Care

Ashley Gambhir, MBA
Executive Director, Transformation

Joshua Glandorf
Chief Information Officer

Kristin Mekeel, MD
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Perioperative Medicine

Christian Tomaszewski, MD, MBA
Chief Medical Officer, East Campus

Chad VanDenBerg, MPH
Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer

Catheryn Yashar, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Hillcrest and La Jolla Campuses