School of Medicine

Family Medicine

MD student during a Family Medicine clinical rotation

The Department of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine is committed to training future physicians to combine compassionate patient-centered care with the highest quality evidence-based medicine. We are clinicians, educators, and researchers, exploring cutting edge models of primary care delivery that best serve our patients and our communities, especially communities with limited resources.

  • Cambridge Health Alliance

    Many Tufts students fulfill both their FM Clerkship and Longitudinal Preceptorship at a network of Cambridge Health Alliance community health centers, including the CHA Malden Family Medicine Center where the Tufts Family Medicine Residency is located. Tufts FM residents also spend time in Cambridge Health Alliance Hospitals including CHA Everett Hospital and Cambridge Hospital. The Chief of Family Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance is Dr. Laura Sullivan.

    Maine Medical Center

    Maine Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine officially launched their affiliation with the medical school class of 2013, which began in August of 2009. About 36 students in each class are on the Maine track. These students complete portions of their first and second year coursework as well as their entire third year in Maine. Family Medicine faculty from the Department of Family Medicine at MMC host students for their Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, as well as their Longitudinal Preceptorship and the Scientific Foundations of Social and Behavioral Medicine (SFSBM) course. The Chair of Family Medicine at MMC is Dr. Beth Wilson. The Family Medicine Director of Medical Student Education at Maine Medical Center is Dr. Peg Cyr. The Family Medicine Program Director is Dr. Alison Samitt. The Course Co-Director for Scientific Foundations of Social and Behavioral Medicine is Dr. Vicky Hayes.

    Greater Lawrence Family Health Center

    Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) has achieved its mission of serving its community for the about three decades. Many Tufts students observe this mission first-hand, fulfilling both their FM Clerkship and CAP at GLFHC. The Lawrence Family Medicine Residency is also an affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine. The Family Medicine Program Director is Dr. Wendy Barr. The GLFHC Coordinator of Medical Student Education is Dr. Keith Nokes.

    Lynn Community Health Center

    Many Tufts students fulfill both their FM Clerkship and Longitudinal Preceptorship at Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC). LCHC serves an extremely diverse community and offers students a rich experience in serving the underserved.

  • Year One

    • Medical Interviewing and the Doctor-Patient Relationship
      FM Faculty: Wayne Altman, Amy Lee, Clinton Pong, Sarah Rosenberg-Scott, Vicky Hayes, Bethany-Rose Daubman, Josh St. Louis
    • Evidence-Based Medicine
      Allen Shaughnessy, Deborah Erlich, Jessica Early
    • CAP (Competency-based Apprenticeship in Primary care)
      Clinton Pong
    • Scientific Foundations of Social and Behavioral Medicine
      Richard Glickman-Simon, Vicky Hayes

    Year Two

    • Summer Externship
      Wayne Altman
    • CAP (Competency-based Apprenticeship in Primary care)
      Clinton Pong

    Year Three

    • 3rd Year Orientation
      Deborah Erlich
    • Family Medicine Clerkship
      Deborah Erlich, Amy Lee, Wayne Altman, Damian Archer, Lucy Berrington, Warren Bodine, Libby Bradshaw, Tracy Clarke, Amer El-Haddad, Jeff Geller, Richard Glickman-Simon, Honor MacNaughton, Kiame Mahaniah, Sarah Rosenberg-Scott, Glenn Rothfeld, Greg Sawin, Allen Shaughnessy, Andy Smith, Josh St. Louis, Clinton Pong, AnnaMarie Vu
    • Clinical Skills Inter-Clerkship
      Wayne Altman, Stephanie Silverman, Richard Glickman-Simon, Libby Bradshaw, Miguel Martinez, Kiame Mahaniah
    • Geriatrics Elective
      Julia Breton
    • Healthcare IT Elective
      Alan Drabkin, Brian Herrick
    • OSCE
      Deborah Erlich
    • OB Elective
      Kathe Miller, Keith Nokes
    • Reproductive Medicine Elective
      Honor MacNaughton
    • Sports Medicine Elective
      Warren Bodine

    Year Four

    • Family Medicine Acting Internship
      Jessica Early, Keith Nokes, Maine Medical Center
    • Family Medicine Exploration Elective
      Clinton Pong
    • Spanish Immersion Elective
      Keith Nokes
    • Advanced Urban Family Medicine Elective
      Deborah Erlich

  • The Family Medicine Clerkship, directed by Dr. Deborah Erlich, is a six-week rotation that offers students the unique opportunity to experience a diversity of patients and patient presentations that will help them prepare for whatever field of medicine they eventually choose.

    The family medicine community faculty includes over 250 teachers at greater than 100 sites throughout New England. While there are sites as far away as Cape Cod, Vermont, and Maine, over 80% of the sites are less than a 45 minute drive from Boston and many are located right here in Greater Boston.

    Students spend four days each week with their preceptors, seeing patients autonomously and receiving direct observation and individualized feedback. They perform one home visit, complete an end-of-life advance directive, and to learn to care for a wide variety of medical conditions.

    Students spend one day each week back at Tufts for interactive didactic case discussions based on characters from four standardized families of differing cultural backgrounds. The didactic case discussions explore bio-psycho-social issues pertaining to the members of these families and help students understand how the philosophies of family medicine promote excellent patient care. Highlights of didactic days include several standardized patient exercises as well as interactive workshops on information mastery, dermatology, women's health, underserved medicine, sports medicine and many more core Family Medicine topics. As part of the clerkship, students also complete an interactive, evidence-based online nutrition course, the Nonprofit Gaples Institute Nutrition Course for Health Professionals, and then apply its principles to a faculty-observed, standardized patient interview. The didactic days, taught and facilitated by over 22 different faculty, receive outstanding anonymous feedback from the students.

  • Master Teacher Fellowship

    The Master Teacher Fellowship is a two-year program aimed at developing family medicine faculty to take leadership roles in developing competency-based education in community and university-based settings. This full-time, onsite fellowship focuses on effective teaching skills, competency-based curriculum development, distance learning, creation of the patient-centered medical home, and the practice and teaching of information mastery. Upon completion of the requisite coursework and a Masters Dissertation, a Masters in Medical Education degree is awarded.

    For more information on the Master Teacher Fellowship, contact:

    Allen Shaughnessy, PharmD, MMedEd
    Director, Master Teacher Fellowship
    Tufts University Family Medicine Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance
    195 Canal Street
    Malden, MA 02148
    Phone: 781-338-0507
    Fax: 781-338-0150
    Email: Allen.Shaughnessy@tufts.edu

    Reproductive Health Care and Advocacy Fellowship

    This one-year fellowship aims to develop leaders who will promote and teach full-spectrum reproductive health care, including abortion, within primary care. The fellowship is full-time, based at Cambridge Health Alliance and run in collaboration with the Reproductive Health Access Project. The fellow works closely with faculty and residents from the Tufts CHA Family Medicine Residency Program to develop clinical, academic and advocacy skills. The fellow spends one year as a "trainer in training," learning to perform full spectrum reproductive health procedures, integrate these services into primary care settings and teach these procedures to others. Fellows develop teaching skills through leading didactic sessions for medical students and residents and by presenting at academic meetings. Advocacy experience is gained by partnering with primary care and reproductive health organizations on projects which increase access to reproductive health care. For more information please visit the fellowship web page at: Reproductive Health Care and Advocacy Fellowship.

  • Tufts Family Medicine Residency

    Tufts University FM Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance
    Program Director: Caitlin G. D'Agata, MD

    The main residency teaching site for Family Medicine at Tufts is located at Cambridge Health Alliance in Malden, MA. Tufts University has a well-respected university and medical school, and Boston is a city known throughout the world for its teaching hospitals and quality of life. Residents benefit from carefully selected regular rotations and enjoy an intensive longitudinal experience at the Family Medicine Center in the diverse city of Malden.

    Tufts University Family Medicine Residency was one of 14 sites chosen via a national competition to participate in a program to transform Family Medicine and create new models of residency training known as P4 (Preparing the Personal Physician for Practice).

    Tufts Residency Affiliates

    Lawrence Family Medicine Residency
    Program Director: Nicholas Weida, MD

    As a teaching affiliate of Tufts University Department of Family Medicine, The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) and its Family Medicine Residency provides healthcare, social services and health education to an average of 42,000 patients a year. The busy community health center network and adjacent single-residency community teaching hospital has always been an innovative and progressive place, starting in 1994 as the nation’s first accredited Community Health Center-sponsored family medicine residency. The residency is not just in Lawrence—it is an integral part of Lawrence, and Lawrence is an integral part of the residency. The residency's goal is to train the best primary care physicians in the world and for the world.

    Maine Medical Center Family Medicine Residency
    Program Director: Alison Samitt, MD

    The Maine Medical Center recently affiliated with Tufts University to create Maine's first allopathic medical school. The Maine Medical Center will serve as a primary teaching site for Tufts "Maine track" students, with family medicine residents and faculty providing teaching throughout the four-year medical school curriculum in addition to their residency program. The Maine Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program evolved from the oldest General Practice residency in Maine. Continuing a tradition of medical education begun in 1874, Maine Medical Center converted its residency program in General Practice to a three-year program in Family Medicine in 1973. At that time the program's Family Practice Center opened its doors and has been serving the healthcare needs of Portland's East End neighborhood ever since. The residency is devoted to providing a superior educational experience for Family Medicine residents and students as well as comprehensive, high quality healthcare to patients, families, and our community.