Our Specialty

Family Medicine is the foundation of a family’s health care and wellness. Also known as primary care doctors, family physicians provide comprehensive, continuous health care to all members of the family throughout the course of their lives -- from newborns to the elderly, men and women, and all medical problems. The specialty integrates biological, clinical and behavioral sciences.

More information about the Family Medicine specialty.

Make A Difference!

The Department of Family and Community Medicine is supported by funds from private philanthropy and government and institutional grants. While every source of funding is important, private philanthropic support is especially vital to the success of the department.

More about Making a Difference

FCM News Flash - Monthly Newsletter for the Department of Family and Community Medicine

Learn more about the activities and accomplishments of our department faculty and staff! The FCM News Flash newsletter archives can be found here.

Welcome to the Physician Assistant Class of 2013!

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine recently welcomed 30 new students to its Physician Assistant (PA) Program. Members of the Class of 2013 were initiated into the program at a white coat ceremony on June 10.

James Van Rhee, MS, PA-C, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Director of the PA Program, opened the ceremony by extending thanks to Lewis Landsberg, MD, Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine and dean emeritus at Feinberg, who was instrumental in launching the program. He also thanked the friends and family who came to show their support for Feinberg’s newest PA students.

The incoming class includes seven men and 23 women. Students hail from 12 states and 25 undergraduate institutions, and boast 21 undergraduate majors — from biology and nutrition to international relations and women’s studies. Entering class members join Feinberg with extensive clinical experience, with the average number of clinical hours per student exceeding 4,000.

“Approximately one out of every 37 program applicants was accepted this year,” said Van Rhee, highlighting the high caliber of students that comprise the class.

Click here to read more!

Physician Assistant Class of 2012 Launches Lewis Landsberg Society

The Lewis Landsberg Society offers students in Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Physician Assistant (PA) Program the opportunity to work alongside their classmates to explore professional interests and development, student government, and community engagement activities.

“The society was developed to give our students a voice at the program, local, state, and national level to discuss issues that are important to them,” says James Van Rhee, MS, PA-C, Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Director of the PA Program. “It also serves as a platform for engaging with peers in community service and medical training activities.”

Members of the inaugural Class of 2012 have already made a great deal of progress since launching the society — hosting monthly all-class meetings to determine goals and establish the roles of the society’s leadership. The group has also introduced partnerships with the Howard Brown Health Center, a clinic where students can go to volunteer and learn from physician assistants who care for underserved patients in Chicago.

Click here to read more!

Congratulations to 2010 Alumnae of NU Graduate Fellowship Recipient

Mary Beth Holden, a Master of Medical Science student in the Department of Family and Community Medicine's Physician Assistant Program, has been awarded the 2010 Alumnae of Northwestern University Graduate Fellowship.

As an undergraduate, Mary Beth spent Spring Quarter 2007 in South Africa through the Global Healthcare Technologies Study Abroad Program. There she "encountered the stark disparities between regional healthcare resources ... patients being treated in a modern hospital and those in a crowded free clinic." Working with healthcare providers and mothers, she designed a Premature Infant Apnea Monitor that was awarded the Best BME Design Project. That summer as an intern at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, she helped "develop a robotic device to assist stroke patients in regaining upper extremity mobility."

After graduation, Mary Beth worked as a Clinical Research Associate at a pharmaceutical advertising agency, where "she earned the respect of our entire team...with the quality of her work, her analytical mind and her innate aptitude for helping people." But she ''missed the interaction with scientists, engineers, healthcare providers, and most of all, patients," and began to volunteer at LaRabida Children's Hospital. Inspired by the children being treated there, Mary Beth decided to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant. Her potential for success was described in these words: "Mary Beth is that rare individual who bas tremendous empathy and compassion ...few professionals are so in 'tuned' to the needs and wants of the patient. She is exactly the type of professional our industry needs."

Click here to read more about the recipients of the 2010 Alumnae of Northwestern University Graduate Fellowship!

The Monarch Community Garden in Humboldt Park!

With help from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, students from Depaul University, and volunteer workers from the Greater Humboldt Park community, the Monarch Community Garden is nearing its completion stage. Located on the Corner of North California Avenue and West Thomas Street, the Monarch Community Garden is intended to provide urban gardening space for the Greater Humboldt Park Community. Roughly 80+ plots will be assigned to community members to grow fruits vegetables, flowers and plants.

Pictured: Community garden plots with mulch border

CURAR (Chicago URban Agriculture Research) is the research arm of the Monarch Community Garden. This first-year pilot project will examine the health of effects of urban gardening on 20 participant families. Currently, the project is in its recruitment phase.

Pictured: CURAR Project Leaders Dr. Beth Dunlap and Dr. George Weyer

Click here to learn more about the Monarch Community Garden, CURAR, and the Geoponica Alliance.

Family Medicine Residents Spring into Action!

On May 3rd, resident physicians from the Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program traveled to the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield to support the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians. These physician advocates met with lawmakers and provided their perspectives on a range of issues that affect healthcare throughout the state.

Pictured (left to right): Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Resident Sylvia Ukonga, State Representative Sara Feigenholtz, Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Associate Director Anuj Shah, and Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Resident Dorothy Dschida.

For a full recap of the Spring into Action event, click here.

Visit the Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program Facebook page here.

Feinberg Students Represent at STFM Annual Spring Conference

Accompanied by Department of Family and Community Medicine faculty and resident physicians from the Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program, students from the Feinberg School of Medicine made a splash at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Annual Spring Conference, April 27 to May 1, in New Orleans. Their poster: "A Peer-teaching Intervention to Increase Clinical Acumen and Community Engagement in First-year Medical Students."

Pictured (left to right): Feinberg School of Medicine students Richard Leiter, Joanne Kim, Anthony Cheng and Department of Family and Community Medicine faculty Dr. Mark Loafman.

Click here to learn more about the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

New Grant Will Train More Primary Care Physicians in Chicago

A consortium including McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, Erie Family Health Center and Norwegian American Hospital will receive a new federal grant that could reach $16 million over five years to support an innovative new program to expand the primary care workforce.

The grant will fund family medicine outpatient residency training in a community-based setting that emphasizes preventive and chronic disease management. The program has begun training eight residents in primary care, will grow to 16 residents in July and will expand to 24 residents by July 2012.

“This is a new approach,” said Deb Edberg, M.D. (pictured), director of the Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program. “We are creating a residency experience that emphasizes training at an out-patient primary care facility and isn’t hospital dependent. One of the big problems with health care is physicians graduate and do a really good job of taking care of people when they are sick in the hospital, but don’t do as good a job at primary care and prevention. This program is designed to help change that.”

The Northwestern consortium is one of 11 designated teaching health centers around the country awarded a grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration.

"If we want people to be experts in community care, which is what Erie does, we should train the next generation of providers,” said David Buchanan, M.D., chief medical officer at Erie. “This program will support the future of the health system in Chicago and the country."

José R. Sánchez, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian American Hospital, noted the grant “will enable the partnership to train family physicians with an emphasis on caring for the underserved as well as contributing to research and public policy. Norwegian American Hospital is honored to be part of this important new program.”

PA Students with Northwestern Medicine Ties Awarded Tuition Scholarships

Northwestern Medicine has made a commitment to develop its people, culture, and resources as one of its main goals toward becoming an elite academic medical center. This commitment was evident with the recent presentation of two scholarships to students from the Physician Assistant Program.

First-year Physician Assistant (PA) students James Mangerson (pictured right) and Elizabeth Randolph (pictured left) were recognized March 1 at a scholarship luncheon. The students are both former hospital employees, which made them eligible to receive the award.

“Both Liz and I cherished the roles we held at the hospital and the culture there, which pushed us to achieve our potential,” said Mangerson. “Now, at Feinberg, I can truly say how fortunate we are to be part of the Northwestern family.”

Mangerson, formerly a nuclear medical technologist, and Randolph, a registered nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, each applied for the tuition award through the NMH Academy at the beginning of their first semester. The academy decided to split the scholarship between the two students. Both will receive approximately $17,000, or half tuition, for their second year.

Click here to read more!

Congratulations Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine Scholars!

The Department of Family and Community Medicine celebrates the four Feinberg School of Medicine students who matched into Family Medicine residency programs on Match Day, March 17, 2011. We wish them all the best in their future medical careers!

Click here to read more!

Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program Welcomes New Resident Physicians!

Sharing pizza and proudly wearing green Saint Patrick's Day beads, first-year resident physicians from the Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program celebrated Resident Match Day with Family and Community Medicine faculty. 8 new interns will begin their residency with Northwestern McGaw on June 23, 2011.




Pictured (left to right): Dorothy Dschida, MD, Beth Dunlap, MD, Stephanie Place, MD, Meredith Hirshfeld, MD, Adianez Albelo, MD, Sylvia Ukonga, MD, and Jillian Moshay, MD.

Pictured: Mark Macumber, MD, Anuj Shah, MD, Deb Edberg, MD, and Carrie Nelson, MD.

Click here to learn more about the incoming class of 2014!

The Family Medicine Interest Group Announces Series of Lunchtime Talks! 

The Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) is proud to host a series of lunchtime talks, in which prominent physicians in the Chicago area will discuss their experiences in Family Medicine.

Click here to view an updated schedule of FMIG speakers!

Norwegian American Hospital and Operation Walk Chicago: Helping Those Who Suffer From Joint Disease Walk Again

Norwegian American Hospital and Operation Walk Chicago will perform hip and knee replacement surgeries on 8 uninsured Chicagoans who suffer from intractable pain and disability from advanced arthritis. This pilot program, a collaboration between Norwegian American Hospital, Operation Walk, and scores of volunteers and donors, is the first of its kind, providing life-changing surgery free of charge and establishing a program to meet the orthopedic needs of Chicago’s uninsured. Through this project, Chicago – the city of “Big Shoulders” – boldly attempts to tackle a national problem, finding a way to provide expensive, state-of-the-art medical care for the uninsured.

Click here to read more!

To view the WTTW Chicago Tonight story on the collaboration between Operation Walk and Norwegian American Hospital, click here. 

Renovation Complete at Erie Humboldt Park Health Center 

According to Erie Family Health Center President and CEO Lee Francis, MD, MPH: "On March 28 Erie Family Health Center completed a $3.9M renovation of our Erie Humboldt Park Health Center.  The renovation replaces aged early-20^th century infrastructure, provides bright new community services space and creates beautiful new teaching space for the family medicine residency program.  I am very proud of the achievements of this renovation and wanted to send all of our partners a short 3 minute video so you can see the transformation of the space." 

 See the youtube video here!

Interim Dean Jeff Glassroth, MD Welcomes Michael Fleming, MD, MPH as Interim Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Jeff Glassroth, Interim Dean of Feinberg School of Medicine (pictured right), announced Dr. Michael Fleming (pictured left) as Interim Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine effective March 3, 2011. At Dr. Fleming's announcement meeting, Dr. Glassroth spoke about the decision process to select an interim chair for the Department, which required several weeks of discussion with Department members, as well as his own research and careful thought.  He praised the Department’s success and the strength of its faculty and staff.  Dr. Fleming is very excited about this opportunity and looks forward to leading the Department in collaboration with its members.

Dr. Fleming, a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine, joined Feinberg and the Department in September 2010 as Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Faculty Development. Prior to coming to the medical school, he served as Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and held the position of Director for the Pain and Inpatient Addiction Medicine consult services at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, as well as Director of Research, Education, and Career Development Programs at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.  

He replaces Russ G. Robertson, MD, who became Vice President for Medical Affairs at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and Dean of its Chicago Medical School on March 1.

Contact Us

If you are interested in learning more about family and community medicine, we encourage your communication. Additional Web sites and departmental contact information can be found by clicking here.

For information on department faculty, click the Faculty link.

 Our Affiliates and Collaborators