Thoughts from the Director
For residents training at the Grand Rapids Family Medicine Residency, the future is now.
We believe that the training of future family physicians must be grounded in evidence-based medicine that is relevant to the care of the whole person in a relationship and community context. Founded in 1974, our program has more than twenty years in teaching and practicing evidence-based medicine, with over thirty years of teaching how the Physician-Patient-Family Relationship is at the center of our healing work.
The training of future family physicians must be technologically up to date, built on a solid foundation of clinical science, and strong in the components of interpersonal and behavioral skills. Our program is forging the way with computerized physician order entry, personal digital assistants for point of care learning and patient education, and resident videotaping shared with a team of behavioral scientists.
Family physicians must continue to be broadly trained and have the competencies required to practice in a variety of settings. Our residents are trained to provide the whole spectrum of primary care services to their patients, from procedures to obstetrics to counseling, in the inpatient arena and the outpatient office. Many of our residents train in underserved areas, rural settings and even in third-world countries.
Our residency program is constantly changing its curriculum to meet the needs of the future. We tailor our training to be compatible with the educational resources of our community and the needs of each resident. We pride ourselves on teamwork, innovation and input from our residents at all levels of training. Graduates of our program go on to become leaders and teachers in the field of medicine in their communities, a fact we are very proud of. And most of all, we make a point of having fun together as we learn and grow along the path towards becoming excellent family physicians.
As we begin the 21st century, Grand Rapids is at the center of a great sea-change in medical education and research. This will be an exciting time to be training as a family physician in Grand Rapids…we invite you to join us and see into the future!
Dr. John vanSchagen, MD