Family medicine physicians have some of the broadest skill sets in the world of medicine, and our curriculum is intended to create physicians fully ready to enter any kind of practice they desire. Our mission is to help our community thrive by fostering advocates for social justice and equity. Our didactic curriculum has been carefully designed in partnership with the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency and enhanced with changes to the ACGME requirements for Family Medicine. This partnership will allow our residents to have a rich and intensive didactic experience, with the benefit of years of careful thought and resident input.
Training Opportunities
Our residents have many opportunities to engage with and learn from our communities during their training. Our longitudinal Population Health and Community Engagement (PHACE) curriculum provides residents with the opportunity to:
- Identify health inequities and take steps towards mitigation.
- Identify and address the social determinants of health that affect patients and populations.
- Engage with community groups and public health entities to promote the wellness of individuals and communities served.
- Advocate for policy changes to improve the health of the people served.
Taught through lectures, field trips, hands-on experiences, projects, and workshops; we partner with community-based organizations and public health professionals, policymakers, lobbyists, and a local elementary school. Throughout their training, residents’ knowledge and skills to care for the diverse populations of Denver and Aurora increase, as do their ability to apply these skills to serve different communities in their future practices.
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.
Training Hospitals
Residents will spend most of their time at Montbello Clinic in Montbello, Denver, CO. When our residents rotate through hospitals our resident’s home hospital will be Denver Health Hospital, with some rotations at Children’s Hospital and the University of Colorado Hospital. Denver Health also runs a clinic at nearby ski resort, Winter Park, where residents will have the opportunity for hands on sports medicine training.
- Denver Health Hospital: Colorado’s premier safety net hospital, Denver Health is a model for the nation in providing care to underserved populations. With Colorado'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 Colorado School of Medicine. Our residents will complete the majority of their inpatient time at Denver Health with Family Medicine attendings, as well as time on inpatient pediatrics, emergency medicine, newborn nursery, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology.
- Children’s Hospital of Colorado: The Rocky Mountain Region's only hospital dedicated to the treatment of sick and injured children, Children’s Hospital Colorado 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. Our residents complete several rotations at Children's Colorado, including Inpatient Pediatrics and Emergency Pediatrics rotations.
- The University of Colorado Hospital: 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 Colorado 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 Colorado School of Medicine and a variety of health professions programs including Dentistry, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant.
University of Colorado 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 residents will work with the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency running a full spectrum family medicine service.