UCSF-SFGHMC Family Practice Residency Program celebrates 30 years serving urban, underserved communi

The UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program will celebrate 30 years of teaching family physicians how to provide quality care for urban, underserved communities with an open house at the Family Health Center.  The open house will be held from 4-5:30 pm on Saturday, April 27 at the program’s main training site, the SFGHMC Family Health Center, 1001 Potrero Ave., Building 80.

His Honor Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, has proclaimed the week of April 26 through May 2 as Family Practice Week and is planning to attend the open house. Residency program faculty will also greet graduates and the guests can meet current residents and tour the innovative center.
The celebration will continue into the evening with dinner and dancing, beginning at 6 pm at the California Culinary Academy, 625 Polk St.

One of the pioneering Family Practice residencies in the U.S., the UCSF/SFGHMC Family Practice Residency Program has a distinguished record.  More than 300 graduates who have graduated from the program have gone on to make significant contributions to the communities they serve.

“We are proud of our graduates and the contributions they have made: as providers, as educators, and as leaders in public health,” said Teresa J. Villela, MD, UCSF associate clinical professor and director of the residency program.  “They are the daily manifestation of our mission statement, and we want to celebrate the vision that has sustained our work for the past 30 years.” 

“The open house was planned to coincide with the annual meeting of the Society of Families of Teachers of Family Medicine, the academic Family Practice organization which will meet in San Francisco beginning April 28,” according to Kevin Grumbach, MD, UCSF professor and chief of Family and Community Medicine at SFGH Medical Center. The focus of this year’s meeting is social justice.

“Several of our graduates are now directors of community health centers in San Francisco and the Bay Area. We have a substantial number of minority graduates who are leaders in caring for minority communities, including work at the Indian Health Service or leaders in HIV care, and care of gay/lesbian/transgender populations,” Grumbach said. Other graduates, he added, have achieved prominence in public service and policy.

For more information about the UCSF Family Practice Residency Program, visit the website www.ucsf.edu/ucsffp/ or call (415) 206-8611.

For more information about the annual meeting of the Society of Families of Teachers of Family Medicine, visit the website:  www.stfm.org.