Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Exceptional Education | Full Spectrum Care | Collaborative Research
The department was created more than 50 years ago with a mission to train excellent primary care physicians.
We have 10 family medicine residency programs—five in the Twin Cities and five in Greater Minnesota.
We train family physicians to provide comprehensive, personalized care for the whole family in any setting: urban, rural, global. Each program has its own curricular strengths, unique feel, and sense of community.
Our top-ranked educational programs include eight distinct residency programs and five fellowships, as well as many courses and opportunities for medical students and community physicians.
Our approach to care is collaborative and team-based, within multiple clinics and hospitals across the state of Minnesota. We are dedicated to comprehensive, personalized care for the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community.
One of the top-funded family medicine departments in the country by the NIH, we focus on collaborative and cutting-edge research across multiple health-related areas, including diabetes, obesity, smoking cessation, health inequities and health equity, nutrition, integrated care, behavioral health, opioids, community-based participatory research, and sexual health.
Department Head, James Pacala, MD, MS
The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health is part of the University of Minnesota Medical School. The department was created more than 50 years ago with a mission to train primary care physicians.
Minnesota Northstar Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program
Led by PI Jim Pacala, MD, MS, the Minnesota Northstar Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (MN GWEP) has a mission to improve the healthcare and health of older adults across the state of Minnesota.