This is the first version of the 2024–25 General Catalog. Please check back regularly for changes. The final edition and the historical PDF will be published during the fall semester.
The Department of Family Medicine is nationally recognized for excellence in patient care, teaching, and research. The department is dedicated to providing primary care for the citizens of Iowa, educating medical students, training resident physicians, providing continuing education, and creating new knowledge to improve primary care and health care delivery systems.
The Department of Family Medicine trains primary care physicians. The department offers coursework that is included throughout the four-year MD program. Advanced elective rotations give students opportunities for exposure to various Iowa communities through work in affiliated hospitals or connected facilities including clerkships with selected family physicians throughout the state and within University of Iowa Health Care family medicine department and clinics. Students also have the opportunity for independent study during their fourth year.
Family Medicine Residency
The Department of Family Medicine directs a three-year residency program whose graduates are eligible for certification by the American Board of Family Medicine. The residency program trains physicians to provide continuous and comprehensive medical care to patients and their families. Residents are educated in all areas of family medicine—adult medicine, maternal and child health, behavioral science, surgical specialties, and community medicine. Training emphasizes the value of wellness and preventive medicine as well as curative medicine.
The program is organized as a progressive educational experience. It consists of formal teaching and clinical experiences on assigned rotations, structured conferences, and patient care in the Family Medicine Clinic. As residents develop clinical skills, medical judgment, and competence, their patient responsibilities increase. Some patients at the Family Medicine Clinic are assigned to residents, who provide medical care under faculty supervision. Residents are responsible for their patients for the duration of the residency program.
Residents also learn the principles of practice management, including organizational and administrative decision-making, patient record and bookkeeping procedures, and chart auditing methodologies.
Residents are expected to take responsibility for their learning environment, to avail themselves of the department's diverse resources, and to collaborate with the faculty in order to have the best possible learning experience.
Family Medicine–Psychiatry Residency
The Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry cosponsor the combined Family Medicine–Psychiatry Residency program. The program's residents acquire broad-based training in both disciplines, including focused training in geriatrics and geriatric psychiatry, substance and alcohol abuse, diagnosis and treatment of depression, delirium, eating disorders, panic disorders, and neurotic and somatizing behavior. Graduates are eligible for certification by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
The Department of Family Medicine is located on the University of Iowa health sciences campus. Faculty offices are close to the Family Medicine Clinic, where patients are seen by appointment. The department also has community-based clinics in southeast Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, Muscatine, North Liberty, and Riverside, Iowa.
Family Medicine Courses
FAM:8005 Medical Education Community Orientation 0 s.h.
Experience in a local health care delivery system away from the university setting, between first and second year of MD program.
FAM:8301 Preceptorship in Family Medicine arr.
One-on-one experience with a practicing physician; exposure to illnesses, conditions often seen in primary care; realistic background for evaluation of family medicine as a career alternative.
FAM:8302 Family and Community Medicine 6 s.h.
One-on-one experience with a practicing physician; exposure to illnesses and conditions often seen in primary care; realistic background for evaluation of family medicine as a career alternative; clinical activities, work with community agencies and resources; didactic and conferences.
FAM:8401 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, University of Iowa 4 s.h.
Inpatient aspects of family medicine's key components; experience on the family medicine inpatient service.
FAM:8402 University of Iowa Family Medicine Clerkship 2,4 s.h.
Work with family practice residents and staff in day-to-day delivery of primary medical care at Family Practice Center; experience in the Family Stress Clinic observing family-centered counseling; nursing home visits, work with departmental social worker and sports medicine specialist.
FAM:8403 Advanced Preceptorship in Family Medicine 2,4 s.h.
Experience in community practice of family medicine.
FAM:8405 Geriatrics Elective 2,4 s.h.
Experience in monitoring and evaluating health and functional status of patients age 65 and older in the UI Geriatric Assessment Clinic and community settings.
FAM:8406 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Cedar Rapids 4 s.h.
Experience as a junior resident in all areas of inpatient family medicine, including maternity care, child and adolescent health, adult medicine.
FAM:8407 Clerkship in Family Medicine, Cedar Rapids 4 s.h.
Experience as a junior resident in all areas of family medicine, including maternity care, child and adolescent health, adult medicine.
FAM:8408 Family Medicine Clerkship, Broadlawns Hospital, Des Moines Family Health Center 4 s.h.
Clinical experience in inpatient and outpatient care.
FAM:8409 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Iowa Lutheran 4 s.h.
Patient-oriented interactive experience in an inpatient family practice environment. Requirements: fourth-year MD enrollment.
FAM:8410 Family Medicine, Iowa Lutheran 4 s.h.
Requirements: fourth-year MD enrollment.
FAM:8411 Family Medicine Clerkship, Davenport 4 s.h.
Assignment to problems commonly seen in family practice office; supervision by residents and faculty for history and physical evaluation and diagnostic workups and treatment of each specific problem; exposure to acutely ill patients in services of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics.
FAM:8412 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Davenport 4 s.h.
Experience in inpatient family medicine; assessing and managing hospitalized patients, evaluating and treating patients in the emergency room, participating in call coverage with family medicine residents.
FAM:8413 Family Medicine Geriatrics, Davenport 4 s.h.
Geriatric, palliative, and end-of-life care issues; assessment of competency in evaluation and management of patients; interdisciplinary nature of geriatric and palliative care.
FAM:8415 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Sioux City 4 s.h.
Experience as a junior resident in all areas of family medicine. Requirements: fourth-year MD enrollment.
FAM:8416 Family Medicine Clerkship, Sioux City 2,4 s.h.
Methods common in family practice medicine; participation in care of patients seen by family practice physicians and residents.
FAM:8417 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Waterloo 4 s.h.
Experience working as a member of family practice inpatient team at Allen Memorial Hospital and Covenant Medical Center, following patients from admission through discharge.
FAM:8418 Family Medicine Clerkship, Waterloo 4 s.h.
Rotation at the Northeast Iowa Family Practice Center; work with patients from outpatient care through hospitalization; basic concepts of family practice, team concept in medical care.
FAM:8419 River Crossing Family Medicine Clerkship 2,4 s.h.
Experience providing patient care in a rural setting; continuity of care for patients of all ages. Requirements: fourth-year MD enrollment.
FAM:8420 Family Medicine, Mason City 2,4 s.h.
Work with family physicians on staff at Mercy or other affiliated community hospitals; management of all patients admitted by the family physicians, participation in care rendered by consultants; primary care experience in family practice office.
FAM:8421 Primary Care Sports Medicine 4 s.h.
Comprehensive, diverse, and educational experience in the field of sports medicine; clinical competence to diagnose and manage medical illnesses and injuries related to sports and exercise in varied patients, recreational and organized athletes, and teams. Requirements: MD enrollment.
FAM:8422 Family Medicine/Psychiatry Elective 2,4 s.h.
Integration of mental and physical health care across outpatient family medicine and outpatient psychiatry arenas. Requirements: MD enrollment.
FAM:8423 Family Medicine, Ames Student Health 4 s.h.
Primary care of late adolescent and young adult patients in a student health center setting; students work with family medicine and mental health providers to address health care needs of this population.
FAM:8424 Family Caregiving Transitions arr.
Students enhance clinical learning from caregiving experiences and increase empathy and patient communication skills; students also enhance personal understanding of, and growth through, caregiving responsibilities in periods of family health transitions.
FAM:8425 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Rural Family Medicine, Algona 4 s.h.
Rural hospital-based subinternship; students provide family medicine service alongside board-certified family physician faculty, performing all admissions on weekdays, rounding on hospitalized patients each day, and call responsibilities including deliveries and ER coverage.
FAM:8426 Disease Registry Management 4 s.h.
Use of electronic medical record-based disease registries to investigate care, identify areas for improvement, and optimize management of chronic disease at individual and/or population level.
FAM:8427 Maternity Care 4 s.h.
Experience in triaging of pregnant patients; students provide usual intrapartum and postpartum care, manage common intrapartum and postpartum complications, and provide care to newborn infants, healthy and ill. Requirements: MD enrollment.
FAM:8428 Caring for the Underserved 2 s.h.
Caring for a variety of medically underserved patient populations with cultural competency and compassion; participation in a variety of experiences with clinical and ancillary/allied services, and community agencies that specialize in providing services to these populations. Requirements: MD enrollment.
FAM:8429 Advanced Inpatient Subinternship in Family Medicine, Broadlawns 4 s.h.
Provides students with advanced training in the knowledge and skills that are foundational to the field of family medicine; through Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines. Requirements: MD enrollment.
FAM:8450 Continuity of Care - Family Medicine 4 s.h.
Longitudinal continuity of care experience for fourth-year MD students in an outpatient family medicine setting.
FAM:8496 Independent Studies arr.
Work with departmental researcher on investigation in family medicine, community medicine, health care delivery, health maintenance, and other areas.
FAM:8497 Research in Family Medicine arr.
Medical research, clinical or laboratory projects; individual study.
FAM:8498 Family Medicine On Campus arr.
Clinical clerkship; individually arranged by student with departmental approval.
FAM:8499 Family Medicine Off Campus arr.
Clerkships; may include community hospitals.