Family Medicine Residency
Welcome - A Letter from Our Program Director, Tamer Said, MD
Thank you for your interest in the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center's Family Medicine Residency Program. Our three-year residency program is located in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, close to Case Western Reserve University in University Circle and near Cleveland's major cultural institutions. Our residency program is the affiliate of the Case Western Reserve University Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
Our mission is to train and educate family physician leaders with the tools to succeed across the spectrum of family medicine, and with a special focus on caring for underserved patients and communities. Our training emphasizes excellence in the care of complex and medically vulnerable patients, development of critical thinking skills and medical decision making, acquisition of primary care centered procedural skills, and professional development in an environment that promotes life-long learning.
Our program offers the opportunity to care for a diverse patient population in a variety of circumstances, promoting teamwork, leadership, and a commitment to both prevention and healing of illness and disease. Our faculty are dedicated to teaching our residents so that they graduate confident in their ability to provide high quality clinical care as they forge a satisfying and durable medical career in the field of family medicine and community health.
During their three years of training, our residents meet milestones in their education and professional growth as their knowledge and wisdom evolves. Our residents participate in formal didactic programs, but more importantly, learn how to expand knowledge in a variety of clinical contexts using an array of resources.
Our program offers diverse experiences beyond the clinic that encourage residents to discover their interests and talents. With regard to research, our department is one of the most productive and varied family medicine research divisions nationally.
We look forward to meeting you as you follow your path to an exciting and satisfying career in family medicine. All the best on your journey to your future career!
Tamer Said, MD
Residency Program Director
Preventive Medicine Residency
The Preventive Medicine Residency at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center (UHCMC) is a 24-month experience consisting of three overlapping components: an academic curriculum, a practicum, and a longitudinal clinical experience. The teaching environment is strengthened by strong relationships with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Shaker Heights Health Department, and the Northeast Ohio Medical University. The faculty and community partners of the residency are dedicated to training the next generation of physician leaders in preventive medicine and public health, and to improving health and health care in our large and diverse community. The enthusiasm, collegiality, and ongoing synergy are palpable in the personal interactions between faculty, residents, and community partners. Individualized learning plans that help each resident to tailor their training to meet their current needs and to set up their desired future career are a hallmark of this program.
About Us
The CWRU/UHCMC ACGME-accredited preventive medicine residency provides training in the specialty area of public health and general preventive medicine. The program is two years in duration and is open to applicants who have completed at least one year of postgraduate clinical training in a residency program accredited by the ACGME, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, or the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Through graduate coursework, didactic conferences, and extensive practicum experiences based in local public health agencies, residents gain skills and experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, disease surveillance, environmental health, health systems management, community health, public health policy, and numerous other facets of population-based practice. In addition, residents learn and practice clinical prevention at the individual level, providing longitudinal care for a defined group of patients and participating in a range of available clinical electives including environmental health, reproductive health, travel medicine, chronic disease prevention, and behavioral medicine.
Case Western Reserve University has developed an increasingly strong presence in public health and preventive medicine, with a large Master of Public Health program housed within a Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, which receives $10 million in grants annually. The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health—home to the Preventive Medicine Residency—boasts a top-ranked research division with emphasis on practice-based research networks and preventive interventions in clinical practice. It is also the editorial home office of the Annals of Family Medicine. In addition, CWRU is home to a CDC-funded Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods, a new Urban Health Initiative, and Community Research Partnership and Practice-Based Research Network Shared Resources—both part of a $64 million NIH-funded Collaborative Translational Science Award.
Cleveland, Ohio is an ideal learning environment for trainees in preventive medicine. While Cleveland faces some very significant challenges associated with poverty, childhood lead exposure, disparities in health and health care access, and more, the public health community has responded with a number of innovative and boundary-spanning initiatives. One such initiative, the Health Improvement Partnership—Cuyahoga County (HIP-C), provides a process for community assessment and development of community-wide health initiatives involving a number of players outside the traditional realms of health care and public health. Another initiative, Better Health Greater Cleveland, enables data sharing and learning collaboratives across seven local health care systems and diverse community partners with the goal of enhancing health care quality. In addition, Cleveland is at the forefront of addressing the problem of urban food deserts through numerous research and demonstration projects aimed at bringing fresh food and healthier eating habits to the urban core. Central to many of these initiatives are two of our community training partners, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) and the Cleveland Department of Public Health (CDPH).
Our Mission
To foster residents' individuality, growth and leadership in an academically rich and culturally diverse urban environment, emphasizing the development of excellent clinical skills in preventive care and expertise in applying and contributing to the scientific base for preventive medicine and public health practice.