Interested in Primary Care or the ambulatory subspecialties? This track is for you! Temple's Primary Care Track was developed in 2006 to serve the needs of residents planning to join ambulatory care practices after graduation. Our program provides residents with both the rigorous, hospital-based training of the internal medicine residency and an intensive primary care training experience based on the principles of continuity, mentorship, coaching, and small-group learning. The Primary Care Track combines the resources of a traditional urban internal medicine program with a focus on the core skills necessary to function as a practicing outpatient physician after residency.

The Primary Care Track follows a 4+4 block schedule. Our PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents spend 4 weeks in outpatient followed by 4 weeks inpatient, allowing them to spend a full 50% of their time in the ambulatory setting. Primary Care Track interns and all categorical residents are on a 6+2 schedule – two weeks of outpatient, followed by six weeks of inpatient. The expanded outpatient blocks give our Primary Care Track upper year residents time to participate in our full clinical curriculum – including second practice sites in the community, ambulatory electives, and Primary Care didactics.

Directors

• Track Director: Perry Patton, MD, [click-for-email]
• Associate Track Director: Rachel Snyder, MD, [click-for-email]

Curriculum and Clinical Experiences

Resident clinic:

All residents in the Primary Care Track follow their own patient cohort in the Temple Internal Medicine Associates (TIMA) outpatient practice. Residents are expected to function as partners in a group practice with their co-residents and faculty supervisors. They are responsible for following up on tests they order, answering messages from clinic patients and coordinating care for the patients with the help of support staff.

Primary Care Didactics

Each ambulatory block, residents have an additional half-day of didactics that focus on advanced topics in primary care. Threads include evidence-based primary care, skills-building workshops (office-based procedures such as joint injections), career development, journal clubs, and racism in medicine through book clubs and article discussions. There are a variety of teachers to enhance resident learning including track leadership, expert guest speakers, and residents via a flipped classroom teaching model.

Residents also participate in twice-weekly ambulatory didactics with categorical residents.

Addiction medicine:

All Primary Care Track residents have a longitudinal experience in medication-assisted therapy for substance-use disorders, from their intern year through PGY-3 year. Residents will gain familiarity and comfort with buprenorphine therapy for Opioid Use Disorder, and medication options for managing Alcohol Use Disorder.

Upper Year Experiences (PGY-2 and PGY-3)

Second sites:

Each upper year resident is assigned a second outpatient clinic site in the community, where they spend a half-day each week during outpatient blocks. Practicing at the second site enables our residents to gain experience working in a different clinic setting, and with different practice models. Examples of second sites include Esperanza Health Center, private practices, Oak Street Health, Puentes de Salud, the Mazzoni Center, and AbsoluteCare.

Electives:

Residents will rotate through a variety of two-week electives during their outpatient blocks, to ensure they have a well-rounded ambulatory education. Current elective opportunities include dermatology, sports medicine, rheumatology, endocrinology, infectious disease, and sleep medicine, among others.

Subspecialty clinic:

In the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years, residents have the option of selecting a subspecialty clinic, where they spend a half day each outpatient block. Residents may opt into a subspecialty because they are interested in pursuing fellowship, or to gain additional exposure to a specific clinic area. Available clinics include sports medicine, endocrinology, sleep medicine, and GI.

Mentoring and Community

Clinical coaching:

During the PGY-1 and PGY-2 year, residents have multiple 1-on-1 coaching sessions with GIM faculty who will observe them during clinic.  This helps residents identify specific areas for growth, build clinical skills, and learn new strategies for efficiency in clinic.

Mentorship and career development:

The Primary Care Track director, Dr. Perry Patton, meets regularly with all residents in the program to discuss outpatient clinical skills, post-residency career planning, and research interests. Our academic half-day curriculum contains a career development component including a CV workshop and comprehensive job application information specific to primary care.    

Social events:

Joining the Temple Primary Care Track means joining a tight knit group of residents interested in a future in ambulatory medicine! We come together to have fun and celebrate at events throughout the year, capped off by a graduation dinner in June.