Family Medicine Residency Program

Mission Statement

1. Provide residents with the skills and knowledge required of a family physician by methods of didactic sessions, direct patient care, and faculty modeling.
   
   
2. Enable residents to care for the whole patient, in the realm of the patient's life circumstances, family, and social environment.
   
   
3. Teach residents to become an effective part of the medical team when working with ancillary staff, associated health professionals, and medical consultants.
   
   
4. Provide the resident with training which is flexible with respect to the individuality of the learner in terms of personality, skill level, and future career needs.
   
   
5. Create residents who become life-long self-learners.
   
   
6. Create a nurturing environment for residents with an awareness of each resident's unique needs and circumstances.
   
   
7. As faculty, personally model healthy physician lifestyles, including efficient time management, stress reduction, and self care.

Program Description
Family physicians are primary care physicians who specialize in providing continuing and comprehensive care for individuals and families, patients of all ages and either sex. We provide a “medical home” for our patients.

The goal of the residency is to train you to be a family physician who provides readily available, competent, comprehensive continuing primary care with the focus on the family as the unit of care. You will be able to identify and manage common health problems and confidently perform those procedures which are required in primary care. You will learn the limits of your knowledge and will arrange for consultation and delegation of health care needs outside your competence. You will become skilled in providing care in the office, in the hospital, in the nursing home, and in the patient’s home.

You will be skilled in establishing and maintaining relationships with families to maximize the delivery of good health care. An individual may be the focus of your attention for a particular episode of illness, but your patients are most effectively cared for within the context of their families and their communities.

You will learn to establish rapport with your patients in order to better understand and manage their physical, psychosocial and emotional problems. You will also learn to think therapeutically, paying attention to those aspects of the doctor/patient relationship that benefit the patient and the family, remaining aware that this same relationship has a potential for unwanted side effects.

Four particular principles, essential to the successful practice of family medicine, will be highlighted in all you do: continuity, availability, team-work, and adult learning.

Rotations
The curriculum is as follows:

Electives

Electives are intended primarily to enrich your training with experiences relevant to your plans for future practice or your interests as a family physician. You will have available 5 months of appropriately supervised electives. Your choice of electives, including those for remedial purposes, must be made with the approval of the program director.

You may participate in an OB track here at Lutheran General Hospital. To be included in this track 2 of your 4 electives in the third year must be in OB. Participation in the OB track is mandatory if you are considering doing OB upon graduation.

Resident Scholarly Activity and Research
The opportunity for residents to participate in research or other scholarly activities is provided. Instruction in the critical evaluation of medical literature, including assessing study validity and the applicability of studies to the residents' patients, is provided.

The participation of each resident in an active research program is encouraged as preparation for a lifetime of self-education after the completion of formal training. Generally, this activity is concurrent with other assignments, provided that the responsibilities of the resident are adjusted to permit a reasonable time for research activity. This experience is designed to give residents an awareness of the basic principles of study design, performance, analysis, and reporting, as well as of the relevance for research to patient care.

Other forms of scholarly activity include presentations at national, regional, state, or local meetings, and presentation and publication of review articles and case presentations.

Faculty
William J. Briner, Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S.M.
Medical Director of the Sports Medicine Center
Director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship
Associate Program Director

Brian Chicoine, M.D.
Medical Director of the Adult Down Syndrome Center

Stuart L. Goldman, M.D.
Director of the Family Medicine Quality Assurance Program
Medical Director, Nesset Family Medicine Center
Associate Program Director

Judith A. Gravdal, M.D.
Chair and Program Director

Debra Haley, Ph.D.
Director of Behavioral Science

Greg K. Kirschner, MD, MPH
Associate Program Director
Chair, Curriculum Committee

Robert Moss, M.D.
Director of Geriatrics

Donald W. Novey, M.D.
Medical Director of The Center for Complementary Medicine

Robin O’Meara, MD

Bruce Perlow, M.D.
Director of Resident Recruitment

Tamar Perlow, M.D.
Director, Undergraduate Medical Education

Patrick Piper, MD

Mayank Shah, M.D.
Director of the Family Medicine Service

For more information, contact:
Lisa Socha
Lutheran General Hospital
Phone: (847) 723-7969
Fax: (847) 723-5615