Primary Care Program
We provide quality ambulatory care experiences for all residents. For those individuals committed to a career in primary care medicine or wishing to maximize primary care training, the program offers a Primary Care Track with additional opportunities for clinical experience and mentoring in the outpatient setting. There is no separate match number for this program. Residents express their interest in this track during their internship year and participate in the program primarily during the PGY2 and PGY3 years. Interns who expressed interest in primary care during their application process will have some extra time in internship designed to provide a window on residency and career options in primary care.
Our program has a storied history. Started as one of the first programs in the country in 1973, we now have 278 graduates of the primary care track. In just the last 10 years alone, we have graduated more than 100 primary care residents. Our graduates are leaders in academic general medicine in fifteen states.
Primary Care residents have two continuity practices in their junior and senior years. Almost all work in Healthcare Associates, our multidisciplinary practice based in the beautiful Shapiro building at BIDMC. A large variety of additional continuity sites are available as second sites including Community Health Centers, private practices, student health services, geriatric settings and VA ambulatory practices (continuity pratice sites).
Primary Care residents are exposed to a broad curriculum both in conferences and in clinical rotations. A robust conference schedule, including topics in preventive medicine, mental and behavioral health, substance abuse, orthopedics, and journal club, augments direct learning from patient interactions (primary care curriculum). For each of 5 ambulatory block rotations each year, residents choose from a broad range of more than 30 ambulatory elective opportunities (electives list).
In the senior year, residents are encouraged to work in an Area of Concentration. Residents may choose to develop special areas of clinical expertise in primary care in areas of women’s health, geriatrics, adolescent medicine, or HIV care. Alternatively, residents may choose to do research with many mentors available in general medicine as well as the full range of specialties. Finally, residents might work on a project in health care delivery or on a specific aspect of curriculum development.
Applicants interested in Primary Care are encouraged to express their interest when registering for an interview. Every effort will be made to arrange contact with a general medicine faculty member during the visit to our program.
Primary Care frequently asked questions.
