A family physician provides care to patients and their families with a focus on the biopsychosocial aspects of medical conditions. The care provided is continuing, comprehensive, preventive, and delivered in a personalized manner to all patients regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, or organ system affected. Family physicians practice in all geographic settings in the US and abroad.
Family physicians engage in a broad range of clinical activities encompassing the entire life cycle that occur in the office, hospital, nursing home, extended care facilities, hospice, sporting events and many other settings. Commonly performed procedures in family practices include vaginal delivery, contraception procedures, skin lesion biopsy and excision, vasectomy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, colposcopy, and casting and splinting. Many family physicians engage in advocacy, public policy, research, education, leadership, and the media.
Residency Training
- Duration of training: Three years (some are four years).
- Number of programs nationally: 614
- Number of entering residency positions per year: 3, 654
- Types of fellowships or subspecialties: Faculty Development, Sports Medicine, Geriatrics, Women’s Health, Research, Rural Medicine, Substance Abuse, Adolescent Medicine, Palliative Care/Hospice Medicine, and Integrative Medicine
- Type of Match: Regular
- Overall competitiveness: Mildly Competitive. The average student is very likely to match
Primary Faculty Contact for M1s and M2s
Joel J. Heidelbaugh, M.D., FAAFP, FACG
Medical Student Club or Interest Group
Join our Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG)!!!
Contact Beth Jones, MD and Andrea Murawa (coordinator)
Shadowing or Mentoring Experiences for M1s or M2s
Joel J. Heidelbaugh, M.D., FAAFP, FACG
Resources
Join the American Academy of Family Physicians as a student!
Suggested Journals, Books & Information for Interested Students
- American Family Physician
- Annals of Family Medicine
- Family Medicine (Society of Teachers of Family Medicine)
- Journal of Family Practice
- Case Files in Family Medicine
- Regarding background and philosophy of family medicine: any books/articles by Ian McWhinney or Lynn Carmichael