One of the Nation's Leading Family Medicine Training Programs
The Family Medicine Residency Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center is committed to training physicians wishing to care for patients and their families, particularly those with challenges unique to underserved urban communities. This program strives to teach residents how to develop systems that can improve the health of whole communities.
The neighborhoods we serve include a mosaic of people from different countries and cultures facing educational deficiencies, unemployment, and poverty that both create health problems and limit access to health care. Many immigrants are challenged with language barriers, mental stresses, and cultural adjustment. Despite these problems, the communities we serve remain alive and vibrant, with a richness of tradition, survival, and hope.
Through our Family Medicine approach, called Community-Oriented Primary Care, we collaborate with organizations and individuals from the community to identify health-related challenges and to develop appropriate programs to address those issues. Over three years of training, residents in our program learn to analyze a community; build an active, mutually respectful relationship with its constituents; and collaborate to bring about interventions to improve the community's health. All of our residents have passed the Family Medicine board exam on the first try.