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.
Education
Faculty Spotlight
Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Wheat is the Program Director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Erie Humboldt Park. This program is a Teaching Health Center Program that serves a largely Spanish speaking patient population at Erie Family Health Center a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago. She earned her medical degree at University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine and her Masters of Public Health at University of Illinois School of Public Health. She completed a family medicine residency at McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Humboldt Park. She currently primarily provides fu...
Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Jessica Lapinski completed her residency in Family Medicine in 2019 at Duke University in the Department of Community and Family Medicine. She served as the Education Chief resident from 2017 - 2018 and then as the Population Health Chief resident from 2018 - 2019. She is a 2016 graduate of A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she completed a fellowship in Medical Education. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2010, where she obtained a bachelor of science in biology, a bachelor of arts in psychology and studied abroad at Lancaster...
Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Anna Shannahan (nee Balabanova) is currently Associate Director of Education at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Northwestern.She was born in Russia, continuing to speak fluent Russian, and spent much of her life in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As an athlete and figure skating coach who earned a US Figure Skating Association Gold Medal, she is passionate about diet, exercise, and helping others achieve their health goals. At the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern as a medical student, s...
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...
Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Vasiloff has been on staff at Northwestern Medicine since 2015. She is board certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine. She sees patients ages 12 and up at Northwestern Medicine- Lakeview. She received her medical degree from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her residency at Hinsdale Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident.
Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Rakotz oversees efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease for the American Medical Association. A practicing family physician for more than 20 years, Dr. Rakotz recently served as the Director of Population Health and Virtual Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. In 2014, his office was one of 30 sites in the U.S.to earn the designation as a Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champion. In addition to his position in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, he is a Fellow for the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology (HIT).
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...
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.
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).
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.
Our Community
Our multiple affiliated care sites offer unique training experiences and comprehensive patient care.Starzl Academy
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.
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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