Department of Family Medicine

Increasing Interest in Family Medicine Through Education

Family Medicine offers courses for undergraduate medical students throughout all four years of the medical curriculum. Family Medicine faculty also serve as examiners in the fourth-year Integrative Curriculum Evaluation Exercise (ICEE), as advisers for both individual students and for student groups, and on various course committees and committees for the School of Medicine. Family Medicine faculty also conduct funded educational and curricular research.

The required third-year clerkship in Family Medicine is a four-week ambulatory, community-based rotation at family medicine clinical sites across Texas. The clerkship faculty include both campus-based faculty and community faculty from across the state. The clerkship has consistently been one of the highest-ranked School of Medicine courses over the past decade. Oversight of the clerkship is the responsibility of the Family Medicine Medical Student Education Committee. It is comprised of the clerkship director, physicians, educators, community development specialists, and secretarial staff. The committee meets regularly to address issues that arise and to discuss and work on ideas for improving the clerkship. 

Courses

The Department of Family Medicine offers one required course, its third-year Family Medicine Clerkship, as well as a wide array of acting internships, selectives, and electives. The department also also coordinates the Texas Statewide Family Medicine Preceptorship Program for UTMB Health.

Take a look at the department's course list today.

Get Involved

The Department of Family Medicine sponsors two student interest groups, the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) and Students for Integrative Medicine (SIM), and is also involved in the UTMB Health chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). 

The FMIG is an active group, meeting monthly and hosting outreach events as well as procedure workshops for students to sharpen their skills under the guidance of Department of Family Medicine faculty and residents. For more information about the group and to join in, please visit their Facebook page.

The SIM group has recently undergone a renewal under the leadership of a driven group of interested students. For more information about joining SIM and their activities, please contact Petra Kelsey, a student in the UTMB Health School of Medicine.

AMSA has strong roots at UTMB Health, and the UTMB chapter focuses on community service and enhancing medical student education. If you are interested in joining the UTMB Health chapter of AMSA, please email the group at amsa.utmb@gmail.com.