Our department's mission is to educate students and residents in family medicine with an emphasis on meeting the needs of the economically disadvantaged and the medically underserved; to advance knowledge in family and community medicine; and develop methods of primary care that are effective, efficient, and accessible to all people.

San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships Tackles Public Health Problems UCSF and an array of community, academic and civic collaborators are wrapping up the first year of an ambitious effort to build partnerships to enhance the well-being of San Francisco residents and eliminate health disparities. San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP), a cross-cutting initiative of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), aims to connect the University's research capital with the expertise and needs of community partners. The goal is to implement strategies to measurably impact health in San Francisco — and to promote health equity along the way. "In the past, research has often been seen as unilaterally serving the needs of the researchers rather than the community," said Kevin Grumbach, MD, co-director of CTSI's Community Engagement and Health Policy (CEHP) Program. "SF HIP is an effort to do it differently; to have the outcome not be theoretical, but rather a discrete and sustainable change in community health." Read more >>

Lessons from the Trenches — A High-Functioning Primary Care Clinic - an article by Dr Tom Bodenheimer just about to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine presents Clinica Family Health Services - a high-performing community health center near Denver, Colorado. The detailed description of Clinica's functioning may help primary care leaders to make improvements in their practices. Read description >>
Women's race and class impact contraception recommendations - A woman's race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status impact whether health care providers recommend one of the most highly effective forms of contraception, a UCSF study confirms. Study results, authored by FCM faculty Christine Dehlendorf, MD, MAS, appear in the October print edition of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.   Read more >>

Sep 2011		Kevin Grumbach and Kara Odom Walker discuss the importance of implementing integrated health care in the Aetna Foundations' 2010 Annual Giving Report. View video (1:50)
Sep 2011		Kara Odom Walker shares her experience as a scholar in the Minority Scholars Program and her dedicated focus on changing policy for underrepresented minority populations in the Aetna Foundations' 2010 Annual Giving Report. View video (2:46)
Aug 2011		Rebecca Mitchell, a 4th-year medical student at UCSF, named 2011 Pisacano Scholar.
June 2011		Shira Shavit, MD, Director of theTransitions Clinic in San Francisco, featured in the Innovation Profile in the most recent AHRQ newsletter.
June 2011		Family Health Center with FCM Faculty Drs. Hammer, Villela, Chen and Yu, featured in an article on Healthy SF from American Medical News.
June 2011		Congratulations to Michael Reyes, MD, MPH, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine - a recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and/or Transgender (GLBT) Leadership.
May 2011		FCM faculty Daphne Miller, M.D. featured in the UCSF Sustainability Stories.
May 2011		Dr. Grumbach is featured in a video for Health Reform and the Primary Care Shortage and the Affordable Care Act..