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Training future generations of family physicians.

Why Choose Family Medicine?

Family medicine physicians provide comprehensive, continuous healthcare to all members of the family throughout the course of their lives. By building relationships based on communication and respect, these physicians gain a deeper understanding of the whole person, including the range of physical, emotional and socioeconomic factors that influence a person’s health status.

The Department of Family & Community Medicine integrates biological, clinical and behavioral sciences to train our physicians to provide outstanding levels of patient-centered and culturally appropriate care.

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Education

Faculty Spotlight

Dorothy A Dschida

Lecturer of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Dschida is a faculty physician with the AMITA Saints Mary and Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program. This program is based on Chicago's west side and serves largely Polish and Spanish-speaking patient populations at PrimeCare Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago. She earned her medical degree at Loyola University Chicago- Stritch School of Medicine and her Masters of Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago. She completed her family medicine residency training at McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Humboldt Park. As a faculty member, ...

Anuj Kumar Shah

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Anuj Shah is an Integrative Family Physician, based out of Heartland Health Center’s Lakeview Clinic. Dr. Shah graduated from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency at the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He continued onto a family medicine fellowship at MacNeal Family Medicine Residency, and received his Masters in Public Health at UIC. For almost 10 years, he worked as a family physician and educator at Erie Family Health Center in Humboldt Park. Dr. Shah developed his passion for holistic care through the University of Arizona Int...

Noman Shahid

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Shahid is board certified in family medicine and palliative medicine. He completed his residency at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and fellowship training at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Shahid’s clinical interests include: caring for seriously ill patients, hospital medicine, addiction medicine, and primary care. He believes in a life of service, and strives to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to his patients. He is thrilled to share his love of teaching, learning, and building long lasting patient relationships at Northwestern.

Kristin E Abbott

Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Abbott is board certified in Family Medicine and Primary Care Sports Medicine. She sees patients at the Northwestern University Health Service in Evanston, IL and serves as the Medical Director of the clinic. This clinic serves only degree-seeking students at Northwestern University. She received her medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and completed her residency at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and fellowship training in Sports Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Abbott’s clinical interests include sports and exercise medicine, care of the female...

Katherine Wright

Research Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Wright's research examines the effectiveness of health and education policy measures while considering the mediating and moderating factors that influence population metrics. Within this context, she has also developed new methodological approaches to account for missing data, and has extensively analyzed large scale data such as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Rebecca Christine DeHoek

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. DeHoek is board certified in Family Medicine. She sees patients of all ages at PCC South Family Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Berwyn. She received his/her medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and completed her residency training at West Suburban Family Medicine Residency. Dr. DeHoek’s clinical interests include: women's health, preventative medicine and behavioral health.  She was among the first preceptors who piloted the Education Centered Medical Home (ECMH) program and enjoys introducing students to primary care through this innovative model. 

Adiba N Khan

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Adiba Khan graduated from McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. During her residency training, she completed the Northwestern Medical Education Clinical Scholars program and served as chief resident.​ In addition to a strong interest in full spectrum family medicine, Dr. Khan has a special interest in women's health, reproductive health, and medical education.

Frances C Baxley

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Frances Baxley currently specializes in family medicine. She completed her medical education at Harvard Medical School and completed her residency training at University of California, San Francisco. She has written a publication for the Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Journal and for the PRIMER journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. She serves on the Board of Directors for the HealthCare Foundation of Northern Lake County. She is also fluent in Spanish. 

Deborah Smith Clements

Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Medical Education

Dr. Clements joined the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2013 as Chair of Family and Community Medicine and Program Director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. In this role, she sets the priorities and vision for family medicine at Northwestern and oversees the training of residents in three residency programs at multiple sites across the Chicagoland area. She is also responsible for the family medicine undergraduate medical education at Feinberg. Previously, she served as the Program Director for the University of Kansas Medical Center F...

Alisha T Thomas

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Thomas is board certified in Family Medicine. She sees patients of all ages at PCC Austin Family Health Center on the west side of the city. She received her medical degree from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern and completed her residency training, including a chief resident year, at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, IL. Dr. Thomas enjoys providing full-spectrum inpatient and outpatient family medicine care, including prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum management, to her patients. She is delighted to have the opportunity to teach and mentor learners at various leve...

Our Community

Our multiple affiliated care sites offer unique training experiences and comprehensive patient care.

Starzl Academy

Former trainee - Luisa Morales Nebreda, MD

Physician-Scientist Training & Resources

We offer a wide range of resources, mentorship opportunities and training to help our residents excel as physician-scientists. Explore all of the resources and hear from housestaff who are making research a major part of their career development plans.

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Health Equity

Our vision is to make Northwestern, our communities, all communities, our lives and the world a better place — with everyone having the chance and responsibility for reaching their own pinnacle of health

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