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The most unique feature of our curriculum for interns are "Chautauquas" (Family Medicine Intensive) which prepare residents for their upcoming rotations, introduce our longitudinal curricula, and create dedicated time for class bonding through: 

• Focused review of medical topics, hands-on procedural workshops, and clinic efficiency
• Certifications like ACLS, NRP, PALS, and ALSO
• Longitudinal learning and projects in: Advanced Primary Care Leadership, Population Health, Advocacy, and Community Engagement (PHACE), Behavioral Health, Evidence Based Medicine, Physician Wellness
• Class retreats, group projects, and some weekends off! 

Major benefits of Chautauquas

Residents build and refresh skills before rotations begin because each Chautauqua focuses on preparing residents for the rotations that follow, allowing interns to immediately practice skills they have just reviewed. Residents bond as a class and grow their identity as family doctors.

PGY1 Rotations (roughly in chronological order)

• Chautauqua 1 (Family Medicine Intensive), the first rotation of the year, which covers topics related to Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Emergency Medicine as well longitudinal curriculum on topics such as community medicine, advocacy, EBM, procedures, etc.
• Internal Medicine
• Surgery (with 1 week of vacation)
• Emergency Medicine
• Chautauqua II (Family Medicine Intensive) which covers topics related to Obstetrics, Pediatrics, and Newborn care
• Obstetrics I
• Outpatient Pediatrics
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Newborn Care
• Family Medicine Inpatient Service at University Hospital with our UH family medicine attendings
• Adult Family Medicine Service at Denver Health with our DH family medicine attendings
• Behavioral Health Foundations
• Chautauqua III (Family Medicine Intensive), the last rotation of the year  

Interns do not do 24-hour call. Most inpatient rotations include approximately one week of night coverage. The Obstetrics I rotation includes two weeks of night shifts.

Our PGY2 year features a variety of inpatient and outpatient rotations. The most unique feature of PGY2 is the Advanced Primary Care Leadership I rotation.

 

PGY2 Rotations:

• Family Medicine Inpatient Service (3 blocks) at University Hospital with our UH family medicine attendings
• Gynecology
• Inpatient Peds
• MICU
• MSK I: Sports Medicine
• Obstetrics II
• Advanced Primary Care Leadership I
• Outpatient Pediatrics II
• Elective
• Selective
• Elective + FMIS- three weeks of elective and one week of FMIS night coverage 

 

PGY2 residents have the option for Q4d 24-hour call during their MICU rotation and are scheduled for 1 to 2 24- hour call during their inpatient peds rotations. Most inpatient rotations include approximately one week of night coverage. The Obstetrics II rotation includes one week of night shifts. 

During third year, residents crystalize their learning so they are prepared to successfully practice as board-certified family physicians. Our residents carry out a class Quality Improvement project at their continuity clinic. 

Residents gain the skills to be leaders in advanced primary care practices during Advanced Primary Care Leadership II. Residents also have time to engage with community partners during protected time during many rotations and engage with nonprofit organizations.

PGY3 Rotations:

• Adult Family Medicine Service at Denver Health and/or Family Medicine Inpatient Service at University Hospital (4 months total)
• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• Geriatrics
• Advanced Primary Care Leadership II
• Electives (3 months for DH track, 2 months for UH track). 
• Elective + FMIS- three weeks of elective and one week of FMIS night coverage
• Selective (Residents have an opportunity to complete a MSK selective at the base of the Winter Park Ski Resort)
• sponsored by the Commission on Family Medicine (*required for UH residents, optional elective for DH residents) 

Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå’s premier safety net hospital and a longtime partner with the University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå, Denver Health is a model for the nation in providing care to underserved populations. With Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå's academic level one trauma center, Denver's 911 response system, nine community health centers, eleven school-based health centers, Denver Department of Public Health, Correctional Care, and the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, the Denver Health system has more than one million patient contacts each year. 

Our Denver Health Family Medicine faculty members deliver babies at Denver Health and supervise an Adult Family Medicine service that runs six months each year. All full-time Denver Health physicians are faculty members within the University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå School of Medicine. 

Our residents complete several rotations at Denver Health, including Surgery, Obstetrics, Cardiology, and Geriatrics.

A vibrant health center with rich educational and research experiences; ranked within the top ten academic hospitals in the United States by the University Health System Consortium since 2012. University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital is a privately administered, non-profit hospital that cares for a wide variety of patients. 

The facility is located on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, the home of the University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå School of Medicine and a variety of health professions programs including Dentistry, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant. 

University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital strives to provide state of the art patient-centered care in an institution dedicated to advancing the art and science of health care. Our program runs a year-round Family Medicine Service at University Hospital 24 hours a day. 

Our residents also complete a number of rotations at University Hospital, including Family Medicine and Inpatient Service in PGY2.

UCHealth operates a growing number of primary care and specialty care practices, including A.F. Williams Family Medicine Center.

The Rocky Mountain Region's only hospital dedicated to the treatment of sick and injured children, Children’s Hospital Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå is consistently ranked among the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation by US News and World Report. The hospital features private rooms for all inpatients, cutting edge intensive care, surgery and radiology facilities, a large conference and education center, and 24-hour dining facilities, all in a spacious and beautifully-designed building. 

Some residents complete rotations at Children's Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå, including Inpatient Pediatrics, Outpatient Pediatrics, and Emergency Pediatrics rotations.

- Our practice continues to refine and bring to life our team-based care and quality-improvement focused approach. 

- Part of UCHealth's network of primary care clinics.

- Second residency practice in the nation recognized as an NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home. Currently certified as Level 3 PCMH.

- 2014 PCMH Practice of the Year awarded by the Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Academy of Family Physicians.

- 2016 STFM Innovative Practice Award, given to the top residency practice in the nation leading practice transformation. 

- Adopted Primary Care Redesign in 2015, an advanced practice model that brings interprofessional care into the work we do for each patient, which was recently featured in the New England Journal of Medicine as a way to prevent physician burnout.

- Providers at A.F. Williams work within interprofessional teams that include pharmacists, behavioral health providers, social workers, care managers, patient navigators, sports medicine physicians, chronic pain/substance abuse specialists, and psychiatrists and psychiatry residents.

- Our care team manages patients with high complexity and our transitions of care program, which includes home visits, identifies and manages high-risk patients as they are discharged from the hospital and transition to care in the outpatient setting.

- Serves a diverse patient population; about 30% of patient visits are covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

- Certified by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH).

- Federally Qualified Health Center; part of Denver Health’s network of FQHCs.

- Located in the Lowry neighborhood in east Denver, about 3 miles south of the A.F. Williams Family Medicine Clinic and sharing a border with the city of Aurora. 

- Denver Health partners with the Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Refugee Services Program and Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Department of Human Services to offer health screenings to new refugees or asylees at this clinic.

- Patient population: Lowry’s patients are incredibly diverse and come from several nearby communities, including the East Colfax neighborhood of Denver and various parts of Aurora. 

- We serve a large population of recent immigrants and refugees from around the world, including Central and South America, several regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The majority of our patients are insured through Medicare/Medicaid, and a proportion of our patients are uninsured and receive care through a sliding fee scale. Overall, 40% of patients are African-American and 30% are Latino. Approximately 50% of patients speak neither English nor Spanish. 

- Providers at Lowry work within interdisciplinary care teams that include psychiatrists, psychologists, an addiction management specialist, a clinical pharmacist, a social worker, several patient navigators, and a Nepali interpreter. 

- The clinic provides several areas of specialized care, including suboxone clinic, sports medicine, podiatry, latent TB treatment, and care for transgender patients. 

- Certified by NCQA as a Level 3 PCMH. ​

All residents benefit from training in advanced primary care practices. Our residency is known for training leaders in primary care redesign. A.F. Williams’ Primary Care Redesign model was featured in the New England Journal of Medicine for its promise in preventing physician burnout and in the Annals of Family Medicine for its impact on quality measures.

Family Medicine resident and medical assistant walking down a clinic hallway. Since 2013, we have had a formal curriculum in advanced primary care. In addition to their clinical experiences, residents take part in two month-long rotations where they dive into various practice transformation topics so that they graduate with a strong understanding of the healthcare system, how to innovate within it, and how to advocate for change in areas where the current system fails. We believe these experiences prepare our graduates to be leaders in their field.

Advance Primary Care Leadership 1 (APCL 1) During this month-long block during the spring of their second year, residents learn alongside classmates in their track about the core components of advanced primary care models such as team-based care, care coordination, patient and family engagement, population management and health equity, quality improvement (QI), continuity and access, payment models and payment reform.

Residents also learn about the history of family medicine as a specialty and engage in experiential learning related to behavioral health skills and community medicine. The month-long curriculum is taught through a blend of lectures, projects, and visits to clinics with a variety of practice models. Residents also participate in continuity clinic throughout the month and choose a topic for their class QI project, to be implemented the following year.

Advanced Primary Care Leadership 2 (APCL 2) During their third year, each resident completes another month-long rotation dedicated to advanced primary care. In addition to immersing themselves in their clinical practice, residents participate in a variety of meetings at their clinic, take leadership of their class QI project, participate in our  home visit program, and complete the STFM Course “Leading Change.” To maintain momentum on class QI projects and allow for a customized experience, residents at each clinic have APCL 2 in different months.

We believe that maternity care is an important part of learning about and caring for families throughout the life cycle. Our goal is to provide foundational obstetrical training for all residents and more advanced training for those who plan to practice obstetrics after graduation.  

To that end, all residents participate in a core obstetrics experience that includes two OB rotations (one in PGY1 at Denver Health and one in PGY2 at University Hospital), clinic-based perinatal care, continuity provider visits and deliveries, and monthly obstetrical didactic learning. 

All residents receive basic training in obstetrical ultrasound, engage in obstetrical simulations in our simulation center, and complete the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics course.

Additionally, we offer an Advanced Maternity Care Concentration with increased and enhanced maternity care experiences for residents who choose to participate. These residents devote two of their electives to maternity care, present at monthly high-risk OB rounds, present mini-lectures during the OB lecture series at didactics, have higher-risk patients on their OB panel and obtain a higher volume of prenatal care experience.

AMCC participants can choose between the Comprehensive Concentration and the Prenatal Care Concentration. The Comprehensive Concentration is designed for residents who want a stronger skillset enabling them to perform low risk vaginal deliveries upon graduation, in addition to prenatal care. The Prenatal Care Concentration is designed for residents who plan to only provide prenatal and postpartum care upon graduation.

Residents in the concentration are also encouraged to complete scholarly and quality improvement projects related to obstetrical practice and are expected to conduct additional deliveries and intrapartum care. 

The number of skills and procedures required of residents in general and in the Advanced Maternity Care Concentration are as follows:

Skills and Procedures	All Residents	AMCC - Comprehensive OB Pathway	AMCC - Prenatal Pathway
Continuity Cases*	10	10 (10 deliveries*)	10 (10 deliveries*)
Intrapartum Care	After R2 rotation: 30	After R2 rotation: 30 By graduation: 80	After R2 rotation: 30 By graduation: 40
Vaginal Deliveries	20	80	40
Operative Vaginal Deliveries**	0	0	0
Perineal Repairs	5	20	10
3rd/4th degree laceration repairs	0	0	0
Cesarean Assist	0	5	2

 

We recognize that Family Medicine’s breadth can make it challenging for our residents to decide on the future scope of their practice. This is one reason why we offer a wide selection of elective opportunities for residents to pursue their passions and develop new ones. 

Second year residents have one 4-week elective, one 4 weeks selective and one 3-week elective. Third year residents have two or three 4-week electives and one 4-week selective. Elective and selective experiences are available at our core training sites, including the University Hospital and Denver Health specialty departments and Children’s Hospital of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå. Some Electives can also be completed at community hospitals and organizations in-state and abroad.

Some electives offer a focus on specific patient populations, such as clinics tailored for refugees, patients taking Suboxone, or patients with Hepatitis B or C. We even have opportunities for residents to spend time working on health policy at the capitol or advocating alongside community organizations. Some residents create custom electives to best suit their interests, and our program is always developing new educational experiences to support the learning needs of our trainees.

Recent electives include: 

• Endocrinology at University Hospital
• Inpatient and Outpatient Geriatrics
• Refugee Health at Denver Health
• Health Policy with the University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå’s Farley Health Policy Center
• Global Medicine at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå clinic in Guatemala’s Trifino region
• Indian Health Services at the Zuni reservation in Arizona
• Inpatient and Outpatient Obstetrics 
• Addiction Medicine
• Gender Affirming Care
• MSK at Winter Park Resort

[Additional opportunities can be found under "Policy and Advocacy" and "Global Health"]

Our residency incorporates policy and advocacy education longitudinally into our curriculum for all residents. Residents also have the opportunity to engage in additional elective and extracurricular activities. The curriculum focuses on experiential learning and opportunities to use policy and advocacy skills in the real world. UCFMR has been recognized by other programs and on our academic campus as a leader in policy and advocacy education. 

Curricular Experiences

The Population Health, Advocacy, and Community Engagement (PHACE) curriculum spans the three years of residency. Advocacy components of this curriculum build on one another over the three years and include the following:

• R1: Advocacy 101– how to get involved in advocacy and policy mapping workshop
• R1: Public narrative and storytelling in advocacy
• R2: Legislative Testimony workshop and visit to the state Capitol
• R2: Op-ed writing workshop
• R3: Advocacy Skills Project – joining a stakeholder meeting and practicing written or oral advocacy skills for a current policy issue

Residency didactics also includes a Policy and Advocacy lecture series that occurs every-other-month. These lectures include recaps of the state legislative session and outside speakers from local advocacy organizations. Additional topic-specific health policy lectures are included in other rotations, including during the Advanced Primary Care Leadership rotation. These lectures cover payment reform, insurance coverage, primary care workforce, and other issues pertinent to family physicians.

Elective Opportunities

We offer several different opportunities for electives:

• State Capitol Rotation: Residents can serve as a Health Policy Aide to a state legislator during the legislative session (January to May). Health Policy Aides prepare briefs, develop talking points, research health policy, and engage in stakeholder meetings. 
  
• Farley Health Policy Center Rotation: The Farley Health Policy Center on the Anschutz Medical Campus researches and translates evidence to inform policy to improve whole health for all. Residents are paired with a project team in an area of interest and work towards a concrete deliverable. The rotation includes mentorship and attending the Farley Health Policy Center team meetings.
  
• Customized Policy & Advocacy Elective: Residents are encouraged to work with a faculty mentor to craft their own policy & advocacy elective. Past electives have focused on a specific topic (e.g.  Opioids & Substance Use Disorder, Climate Medicine, Single Payer Insurance), on the Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Legislative Session, or on partnerships with specific organizations (e.g. Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Academy of Family Physicians, GME Initiative).
  
• Residents have also done away electives in health policy, in Washington, DC.

CUFMR residents have multiple opportunities to pursue global health interests during training. All residents can opt for more specialized training in care for Newcomers, such as selecting an elective at the Denver Health Refugee Clinic or assisting with forensic medical exams for asylum-seekers. For those pursuing a more robust exploration of global health, including those with sights set beyond our US borders, the Global and Immigrant Health Concentration prepares and supports residents for these pursuits. 

Curricular Experiences

The global health curriculum is designed to be 24 months in length and repeats itself. It is open to all residents in the program and occurs via a bimonthly evening session. The curriculum focuses on ethical considerations, decolonization, cultural humility, and the practical skills necessary for global and “glocal” involvement.

Elective Opportunities

We offer several different opportunities for electives.

• International rotations: Guatemala and Uganda rotation 
• U.S.-based rotation: Indian Health Services
• Denver-based rotation: Immigrant and Refugee Health elective at Denver Health 

Our engaged residents and faculty have spearheaded a number of extracurricular working groups that typically meet in the evenings to move their missions forward. All residents, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in these work groups, which include the following:

• Health Policy Journal Club: Members of this monthly journal club meet at a participant’s home to review and discuss articles related to health policy. The group’s goal is to provide a venue for interested residents, faculty, and colleagues or friends outside of our program to learn about and discuss health policy topics.
  
  Past journal clubs have covered bipartisanship in health policy, graduate medical education funding, integrating public health and primary care, health care spending in the United States, measurement in primary care, and school health policy.
  

• Social Justice Work Group: The Social Justice Work Group (SJWG) is a collaborative of residents and faculty who meet monthly to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in the residency and beyond.
  
  The group has many accomplishments from helping change our residency's recruitment and interview process, delivering multiple workshops and trainings, and creating a yearly climate survey.
  
  The group continues to work on developing curriculum, using research and Quality Improvement (QI), and working to better address the health needs of our patients and community.
  

• The A.F. Williams Community Engagement Committee: This committee is an interdisciplinary group of physicians, nurses, medical assistants, behavioral health specialists, social work, care management, and patient navigators at A.F. Williams Family Medicine Clinic who are searching for ways to provide medical care that is aware of and responsive to social, cultural, economic and other everyday forces that promote or undermine the health of our patients.
  
  Their mission is “Cultivating the power of connections for the health of our patients and their neighbors.” This group has developed collaborative partnerships between several community organizations and launched systematic screening for social determinants of health and related evaluation.

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Department of Family Medicine offers four ACGME accredited fellowships: 

• Addiction Medicine
• Geriatrics
• Palliative Medicine
• Primary Care Sports Medicine

Additionally, the Department offers a non-ACGME accredited Fourth Year Junior Faculty Development Program. This fellowship affords graduates of our program who successfully apply and are awarded a position the opportunity to spend a fourth year as a Junior Faculty member, spending 50% of their time practicing in one of our clinical sites and 50% of their time developing an academic area of interest. Past fellowships have included foci in the following areas:  Practice Transformation, Refugee Health, Health Policy, Public Health, and Research. The department also offers a non-ACGME Primary Care Research fellowship.

Please visit the Fellowships and Internships page for more detailed information.

Extracurricular Opportunities

Global & Immigrant Health Concentration is focused on preparing residents to work in globally-diverse contexts (local and international) during residency and their future careers. 

Goals:

1. To train and prepare residents for international and “glocal” health rotations and future careers in global and immigrant/newcomer health.
2. To increase residents' awareness of themes of power and privilege and decolonization of global health and enhance their ability to critically reflect on their own roles in this work.
3. To develop the knowledge and skills residents need to provide care in resource-denied settings, with cultural humility, awareness of regional-specific guidelines, deference to local health experts, and respect for all.

As part of the concentration, residents will participate in the bimonthly evening sessions. If a resident has committed to joining the concentration they will have access to mentorship to guide their interest in immigrant and/or global health. As part of the concentration, residents are encouraged to build a scholarly portfolio in global and immigrant health, including evening session or didactics presentation, global health conference attendance or presentation, and publication or other research pertinent to the field.

How it works:

The Leadership Curriculum is broken down into two parts. The first is leadership skill building that all residents will experience as part of our core residency. The second is the Longitudinal Leadership Curriculum (LLC) where those residents that desire additional exposure and experience to leadership skills can participate in a variety of actives over the year. The LLC will include a series of activities over an 18-month cycle and then repeat.

Our Goals:

• All residents: By graduation, all residents will be able to demonstrate effective leadership skills in their clinical practice, professional organizations, and communities in order to better serve the healthcare needs of their patients and the public.
• Residents in the Longitudinal Leadership Concentration (LLC): Graduates of the concentration will build upon the leadership curriculum’s foundational skills to become confident and effective change agents in the settings in which they serve.

Our Objectives:

We have multiple learning objectives that center around four domains:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Impact of systems of health care

The Structure:

Meet about monthly in the evening. We will also have an occasional 5th Wednesday noon session. Activities in the LLC will include:

• Attune, affirm, advance (leadership skills)
• Book clubs
• Narrative medicine exercise
• Difficult conversations
• Round table discussions with leaders (team conflict, leadership style)
• Storytelling
• Time management
• Stages of teams (forming/storming, values clarification, etc.)
• Coaching 101, 102
• And more...