History
Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency started in 2013 as a rural Family Medicine residency program located in Centreville, AL. The mission of the program is to train residents to provide medical care to children, adults, and elderly, including pre- and post-natal care, so that graduates are equipped to work in rural, underserved and international communities, capable of meeting the medical needs of the marginalized. CFMR expanded by adding the Urban Track in Birmingham, AL (2018), followed by the Frontier Track in Bessemer, Marion and Camden, AL (2022). Currently, there are 4 tracks - Rural, Urban, Highlands, and Frontier.
Community
The Frontier Track places residents in two of the most remote and underserved areas of our state; Marion (Perry County) and Camden (Wilcox County). Living in a rural community means that you are a critical part of the medical services available for your neighbors, coworkers and friends. You see your patients as you go for a run or go to a store, or at church. You recognize familiar faces and know the families they represent. You see a need, and have the ability to help meet that need.
In addition to building relationships in the community, working closely together for 3 years provides opportunity for incredible bonds to form between residents that live nearby and support one another. Sincere care for one another, an unyielding team mentality and an appreciation for laughter and fun are fundamental characteristics of our program.
Full Scope
Family Medicine
Our mission is to train and equip graduates to work in underserved environments whether they be in rural, urban or international communities. Recognizing similarities between resource-poor areas domestically and internationally, our residents acquire a tangible and translatable skill set and knowledge base to provide for the needs of patients in inpatient and outpatient settings. Our curriculum incorporates full spectrum Family Medicine training, as you’ll see in the section entitled “The Program.” Responding to the breadth of knowledge required of a competent Family Medicine physician, our longitudinal curriculum teaches residents to integrate what they are learning on a day by day, patient by patient basis.
Understanding that access to thorough prenatal and post delivery care, well child and sick child care dictates the health of Alabama families, Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency has devoted significant educational time, effort and resources for residents to meet these patients' needs. We provide residents with comprehensive training that will serve as the foundation on which they will build their careers.
Diversity
Throughout its existence Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency has welcomed, educated and graduated residents of different races, faiths, backgrounds and life experiences. We believe those life experiences, while unique to each person, when shared improve our understanding of the world in which we live and work. Engaging one another with love, sincerity and respect helps us to develop cultural sensitivity to improve our engagement with patients and their families.
BECAUSE OF THE VAST SHIFT OF RESOURCES AND CULTURAL SHIFTS, MANY RURAL COMMUNITIES ARE LEFT WITH PERVASIVE HOPELESSNESS AND SHOCKING INEQUITIES IN HEALTH.
Our Frontier track is based out of Marion, AL in a region known as the “Black Belt,” a severely economically depressed region with rich black soil that previously was the site of wealthy white planters and enslaved black persons. For several decades now, The Health Care System has been Leaving the Southern Black Belt Behind.
The Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency Frontier Track was funded by HRSA's Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Educational Program (THCGME) in the midst of masks, PCR tests, and mRNA vaccines. The Frontier Track of the Cahaba-UAB FMR will feature a year at Cahaba Medical Care – Bessemer in collaboration with UAB Medical West, followed by an innovative, longitudinal, integrated curriculum in Alabama's Black Belt at Cahaba Medical Care locations in Marion and Camden, with the residents' hospital time at J.Paul Jones Hospital in Camden, Alabama.
This track will come alongside our Rural Track in Centreville, and our Urban Track in West End (Birmingham), functioning as one unified Family Medicine program, in 3 tracks on 7 different campuses.
Our community engagement extends far beyond our medical involvement.
For instance, through our food pantry, we are also able to provide other valuable resources that address social determinants of health. We also work with other non-profit organizations, faith communities, K-12 schools, and state universities to name a few. Our social work team provides patient assistance services to help our uninsured and underinsured patients get the medications they need, and our clinical behavioral health specialists help with improving our patients mental and spiritual well being outside of their medical visits.
We believe that a person’s health doesn’t exist in a vacuum and that we can care for the community as a patient by volunteering our time, talents, and treasures in real and tangible ways that directly benefit our patients and their families. Being visible in our communities allows us to earn trust with our patients and in turn leads to better interactions in the exam room. Our team participates as servant leaders in many important non-medical avenues such as collaborating with local government leaders on healthcare committees, and there are several community events throughout the year that our staff participates in, including a Trunk or Treat, the Marion Made obstacle competition, the Marion Rodeo, and many other events to build a sense of community between our patients and our staff.
