Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, generally prohibits the practice of medicine without a physician’s and surgeon’s certificate issued by the Medical Board of California. The Medical Practice Act authorizes a person who meets certain eligibility requirements to apply to the board for a special faculty permit, which authorizes the holder to practice medicine without a physician’s and surgeon’s certificate only within the medical school itself, any affiliated institution of the medical school, or an academic medical center and any affiliated institution in which the permitholder is providing instruction as part of the medical school’s or academic medical center’s educational program and for which the medical school or academic medical center has assumed direct responsibility. Existing law defines “academic medical center” for these purposes as a facility that meets certain requirements, including training a minimum of 250 residents and postdoctoral fellows annually, having foreign medical graduates in clinical research, and offering clinical observership training.

This bill would revise the definition of “academic medical center” by instead requiring the facility to train a minimum of 250 resident physicians in specified residencies, by removing the requirement that the research of the foreign medical graduates be clinical, and by requiring the facility to instead offer clinical observer experiences.