Family Medicine Residency
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – PhoenixFamily Medicine Residency
As the original family medicine training program in Arizona and the 15th in the nation, Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, now the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Family Medicine Residency, has a long and rich tradition in family medicine.
The primary focus of our program is to provide superior family medicine education in a "real world" medical setting that will prepare our graduates to thrive in a wide range
of practice settings, urban underserved to rural.
Our program offers a unique experience where family physicians learn and practice in an academically stimulating and supportive multi-residency environment. Our faculty is devoted to teaching with a particular focus on patient-centered, evidence-based care. Our program is recognized for leadership development and has special focus curricula for sports medicine, rural health, maternity care, and academic family medicine. Our outstanding behavioral training is another great strength of our program.
Our residents and faculty host the highly rated, evidence-based, award-winning American Family Physician Podcast, which features clinical updates from the top journal in primary care twice per month.
Who We Are
We are deeply committed to the specialty of family medicine and care of the whole person. Our faculty have diverse interests including evidence-based medicine, rural health, underserved medicine, maternity care, sports medicine, and national leadership. Our faculty are proud that we are true mentors and support each of our residents as they become the kind of family physician they want to be.
Our residents come from diverse backgrounds with a wide variety of academic interests and life experience. Many serve in national leadership positions.
Our graduates practice full-spectrum family medicine in many settings. Career choices for recent graduates include: rural Indian Health Service, urban underserved practice, academics, public health leadership, innovative primary care leadership, and fellowships in sports medicine, obstetrics, and addiction medicine.
Training Sites
The Family Medicine Clinic is an innovative primary care home for our patients and features a top-rated Electronic Medical Record (EMR), panel management, and open access scheduling.
Our patients reflect the diversity of the Central Phoenix population with patients of all ages including a high-volume maternity and pediatric experience.
Outpatient Training
- Over the course of their training, residents improve efficiency and build long-term patient relationships.
- Office time is one to two 1/2 days per week in Year One and two to five 1/2 days per week in Years Two and Three.
- Outstanding opportunity for training in core Family Medicine procedures including women’s health procedures such as endometrial biopsies, IUDs, colposcopy, joint injections, circumcisions and skin procedures.
- Residents follow continuity patients in the office and hospital.
- Counseling skills taught through working with behavioral scientist in the Family Medicine Center.
- Experience with a “real world” practice, including privately insured and Medicare/Medicaid patients.
- Diverse patients including Spanish-speaking and patients of all ages:
- Practice is 25 percent pediatric (age 0-19) and 18 percent geriatric (age >60).
- Excellent experience managing and delivering continuity patients under supervision of Family Medicine faculty.
- We embrace the Patient-Centered Medical Home, innovating our practice for the Future of Family Medicine.
- Only our core Family Medicine faculty teach in clinic in a true mentorship model. We do not use outside preceptors.
Inpatient Training
Our residents learn to provide inpatient care with a family medicine approach on our own inpatient service reserved for our Family Medicine Clinic patients. We also provide care for unassigned newborns, assuring high-volume pediatric experience for our residents in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Resident supervision by core family medicine faculty. Our faculty provide true full-spectrum care.
Other Training Sites:
Program Highlights
Our residents and faculty are recognized as outstanding clinicians and leaders throughout Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix and the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.
- Academic, supportive, multi-residency environment.
- Residents and faculty in national leadership positions.
- Great maternity and high-volume pediatrics experience.
- Outstanding behavioral training.
- Strong faculty devoted to teaching. Focus on patient-centered, evidence-based care.
- Innovative practice with panel management, collaborative care, and team-based care. We embrace and are leading the future of family medicine!
- Special focus curricula for sports medicine, rural, maternity care, and academic family medicine.
Community Engagement
Our residents and faculty founded and volunteer weekly at Emerson Mini-Med School. The goals of Mini-Med school are: to foster excitement in science and medicine in young learners, increase accessibility to higher education, and engage students in hands-on learning about health, the human body, and how science relates to everyday life. Family medicine residents and University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix medical students bring health and medicine-related topics weekly to Emerson students to expose students to science and medicine careers in an accessible format.
Our residents are team physicians at high school sporting events for eight local high schools. Each interested resident has the opportunity to have their “own school” and work closely with a trainer and a community of students.
Our resident-initiated and maintained Banner Family Food Pantry gives patients with food insecurity the opportunity to pick up high-quality produce and healthy non-perishables weekly at our Family Medicine Center. In collaboration with St. Mary’s Food Bank, our food pantry serves about 40 households per week.
We work closely with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix pipeline programs Scrubs Academy and Pre-Medical Summer School to provide access to health careers for underserved students.
Behavioral Health
We recognize behavioral health as a crucial component of comprehensive patient care. Our program guides residents on management strategies and collaboration skills to address behavioral health. Our curriculum emphasizes didactics, hands-on training, and integration of behavioral health into daily practice. This is achieved via direct instruction and joint care from our Behavioral Health Director and the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM).
CoCM, is a type of integrated care that treats common mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. It provides systematic support, with primary care physicians assisted by a consulting psychiatrist and an on-site behavioral health professional. Both the psychiatrist and behavioral health professional add to the residents' medical education. CoCM is the endorsed model of integrated care by Arizona’s Medicaid program.
Our goal is to elevate care quality and community well-being, while preparing residents to meet diverse patient needs.
Medical Student Mentorship
Faculty member Kiana Espinosa, MD is the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) faculty co-advisor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. A two-time FMIG Program of Excellence winner, the college FMIG provides many opportunities for mentoring students through panels, procedure workshops, and leadership experiences. Our residents become expert teachers of medical students. Multiple recent graduates have received teaching awards from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix medical students.
National Leadership
We have had many American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) scholarship winners, AAFP Emerging Leaders, AAFP Foundation Grant winners, and residents in national family medicine board leadership positions in the past several years. Steven Brown, MD, Program Director, is the recent Past President of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. Our Program is nationally recognized for leadership and advocacy. Dr. Brown was awarded the ACGME’s Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award in 2021.
Advocacy
Our residents regularly advocate for our patients and our community at the Arizona State Legislature, located just a few miles from our residency. Each year multiple residents attend the Family Medicine Advocacy Summit in Washington DC.
Scholarly Activity
Our residents and faculty frequently present and teach at national meetings and publish original research, book chapters, and evidence-based reviews. We also host the nationally recognized and award-winning American Family Physician Podcast. Resident opportunity for scholarly work and academic excellence is one of the strengths of our program.
Resident and Faculty Fun Activities
| Annual Picnic – October | This picnic is a time for hilarious games and costumes following the annual national intraining exam given in all family medicine residencies in late October annually. |
| Retreat | The annual springtime get-together, our retreat is a time to recharge our engines, explore Arizona, and enjoy each other’s company. |
| Med Gala | Each February our hospital hosts an epic gala for our residents and fellows. |
| Wellness events | Our classes regularly participate in wellness events organized by the Graduate Medical Education Wellness Committee. |
Curriculum
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Family Medicine Residency education is divided between inpatient and outpatient sites. The core learning experience involves treating patients and their families in the Family Medicine Clinic.
Educational Program Highlights:
- A strong focus on patient-centered, evidence-based humanistic care.
- Special focus curricula in: obstetrics, rural practice, sports medicine, care to the underserved, faculty development and leadership.
- Six months of electives customizable to resident interest.
- Strong pediatric and obstetric experience.
- Outstanding core faculty mentors who provide full-spectrum family medicine care.
- A supportive multi-residency setting that values the expertise and excellence of our family medicine residents.
- Exemplary, evidence-based Tuesday half-day didactic teaching sessions develop resident skills and expertise.
Didactics
Our weekly half-day teaching is highly rated, rigorously evidence-based and excellent preparation for the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) board examination.
Didactic seminars are interactive and feature our family medicine faculty, resident evidence-based medicine (EBM) talks, resident journal club and select outstanding guest speakers.
Elective Months
A total of six elective months are scheduled in the second and third year. Residents can choose from a wide range of elective experiences to prepare them for practice in a variety of settings, including:
- Academic Medicine/Leadership.
- Addiction Medicine.
- Community Health/Underserved.
- GI/Proctology.
- Global Health/International.
- High-Risk Obstetrics.
- Pulmonary.
- Rheumatology.
- Rural.
- Scholarly Activity/Project Month.
- Advocacy.
- Sports Medicine.
- Urgent Care.
Special Focus Curricula
Academic Medicine/Leadership
All our residents learn to be outstanding teachers by teaching medical students and fellow residents and through formal “Resident as Teacher” instruction and our close relationship with the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. All our residents graduate as strong evidence-based physicians.
We have many graduates who are currently family medicine faculty across the country. Residents prepare for a career in academics and leadership with the following curricular options:
- Project month to develop scholarly project.
- Presentations at local and national meetings.
- Faculty development fellowship at the University of Arizona.
- Publications.
International/Rural Health
Residents from the past several years have rotated in a wide variety of international and rural settings including: Hopi Health Center (AZ), Whiteriver Indian Health Service (AZ), the Grand Canyon, Page (AZ), Snowflake (AZ), the Dominican Republic, Thailand, South Sudan and Nepal.
Residents may be away from their continuity clinic no more than two months of residency. We have many graduates working in rural areas and several who practice internationally.
Maternal Health/Obstetrics
All our residents get a high-volume OB experience in the intern year. All residents also have an outstanding continuity obstetrics experience in their second and third years, delivering with family physician mentors. All residents graduate with 60-80 vaginal deliveries.
Residents that wish additional obstetrics experience work closely with our OB/GYN residency colleagues to do high-risk obstetrics care and additional vaginal deliveries.
Sports Medicine
In addition to our strong musculoskeletal medicine training, the residents and faculty at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix work closely with our orthopaedic residency colleagues and primary care sports medicine fellows to cover seven high school football teams.
We regularly match graduates to top sports medicine fellowships around the country and sponsor our own Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship.