Message from the Program Director
Welcome to the Indiana University School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency program at IU Health Primary Care Central Indianapolis!
Like other family medicine programs, we seek to train competent compassionate family physicians who can adapt their practice to the needs of their communities. I hope that while we do that, our program can work alongside you to optimize your wellness while balancing it with the necessary rigor of the program. We strive to do this by including you in changes brought about by our continuous improvement processes and honoring the diverse experiences you bring with you to our program.
The Family Medicine Residency program has a wealth of resources thanks to being part of IU School of Medicine, our location in Indianapolis and our partnership with IU Health. We use these resources to tailor your educational experience to cover the breadth of family medicine while allowing a focus on your goals for future practice.
Our outpatient clinic setting was specifically designed to enhance team-based care and optimize access to the whole team, including our pharmacist, chaplain and social workers with occasional physical therapy and dental team members. You will spend time in clinic on virtually every rotation, with a graduated increase in number of clinics per week and number of patients per clinic over the course of your residency. We see a wide variety of patients, enabling our residents to learn about diseases as well as the impact of varied socioeconomic status, insurance types and ethnicity on patients. Our inpatient service is run by our core family medicine faculty. It is located at IU Health Methodist Hospital, a nationally ranked level one trauma center with an extensive patient population and opportunities to see a wide variety of conditions and complex levels of care. Specialty rotations take place at Methodist Hospital, the Richard L. Roudebush Indianapolis Veterans’ Administration Medical Center, Eskenazi Health Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, IU Health West and IU Health North, giving our residents the chance to work alongside nationally recognized physicians from other specialties while learning evidence-based medicine from faculty who care about resident education. Nationally renowned Riley Hospital for Children hosts our inpatient pediatric and obstetrics rotations. Our obstetrics service is staffed by family medicine faculty, many of whom are C-section trained. We are a Centering Pregnancy site, allowing for group visits, more autonomy and better connection for our patients.
Our engaged faculty have a wide variety of interests, expertise and backgrounds. They work to provide excellent education, mentorship and support to our residents while also working to continuously re-evaluate and improve the residency program. Our faculty lead tracks and specialty clinics at the residency office encompassing LGBTQ+ health, pregnancy care, chronic pain and opioid use disorder, sports medicine, global health, geriatrics and lifestyle medicine. Our new department chair, Kola Okuyemi, MD, MPH, is a national leader in health equity research and our residents will be exposed to cutting edge research in this field.
Our didactic sessions occur weekly with an 18-month rotating curriculum. We have a new wellness curriculum that we are committed to living throughout the program as well as teaching in didactics.
As your program director, I prefer to lead with transparency and collaborative decision making, seeking all stakeholder input prior to final decisions whenever possible. I work closely with the associate program directors as we share knowledge and make decisions as a team. I am a proud graduate of this residency program with many years of experience practicing outside of academia in federally qualified health centers. I’m a big fan of Indianapolis and all it has to offer. My medical passion involves the care of chronic pain and opioid use disorder and I’ll talk your ear off about it if you let me.
Welcome to IU School of Medicine!
