Valley Consortium for Medical Education
Family Medicine Residency Program
Program Director Letter
Hello, and welcome to the Valley Consortium for Medical Education Family Medicine Residency! VCME is an incredible program with a proud 50-year history of training family physicians. The city of Modesto, where we are located in the Central Valley of California, has changed a great deal over the life of our program, but our residency has never changed in our commitment to serving the community with excellence and pride. Our residents work out of Doctor’s Medical Center Modesto, a community hospital with more than 400 inpatient beds, as well as Golden Valley Health Centers, a long-standing FQHC. We are affiliated with UC Davis School of Medicine, a top research and tertiary medical center, which supplements our residents’ community hospital training.
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Our goal is to train full-spectrum family medicine physicians who provide outstanding care to the underserved patients of the Central Valley. Our residents graduate with the ability to practice all branches of Family Medicine in any environment, and frequently go on to fellowship or non-traditional roles including direct primary care and hospitalist medicine.​
VCME faculty love to teach and foster a supportive environment. Residents are treated as colleagues and encouraged to work in an environment that allows autonomy, while ensuring a high quality of care. We care deeply about helping our residents thrive both in and outside of the hospital, and are committed to fostering both personal and professional growth for every member of our department.
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A little bit about me: I grew up in a small farming town only 20 minutes away from Modesto. After training in Fort Worth, Texas in Family Medicine with an OB fellowship, I came home to join as core faculty at San Joaquin General Hospital Family Medicine Residency. After about 8 years and ultimately serving as program director in that program, I decided to find the next adventure and became the program director here at VCME. I love teaching residents, serving our community, and seeking out excellence. I also do a decent amount of work with the American Academy of Family Physicians, and love having adventures with my family . I’m honored to be at VCME as program director, and I can’t wait to meet our future residents!
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Lauren Brown-Berchtold, MD
VCME FMR Program Director
