I am thrilled that you are interested in family medicine as a career! The U.S. healthcare system needs you! One day we will have a system of care based on a solid primary care foundation that is as strong as the highly sophisticated tertiary and specialty care for which American medicine is renowned. I believe it is the destiny of family medicine to be the mainstay of this primary care foundation. I envision a future where every American has a medical home, staffed by highly skilled family physicians providing state-of-the-art, technologically advanced healthcare.

Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency (CFMR) is truly a "residency within a practice". Our residents work alongside our 30 family medicine faculty in a private practice called Cabarrus Family Medicine, PA (CFM). CFM has 7 different offices including our Sports Medicine and Injury Center. Four of these offices have our residents as junior partners within the practice; in fact, all of our offices employ some of our graduates! The entire practice has over 70,000 patients, all of whom have their charts readily available on our Electronic Medical Record. This large patient population provides an excellent opportunity for practice-based education and research. You won't only read about illness here, you WILL see it and treat it, hands on!

Our family medicine faculty staffs our busy, vibrant, inpatient service at Carolinas Medical Center - NorthEast, which provides learning in both common and not-so-common illnesses. Our inpatient service offers a true family medicine experience. In one 24 hour period our resident team might care for a patient in the ICU, admit a sick child to the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital, race to a cardiac arrest on the floor, examine a newborn in the nursery, and deliver an OB patient. There is a lot to learn in family medicine, and fortunately you have three years and a lifetime of practice to learn it. It is our goal to train you well so that your first day of practice will be an "Oh, I know how to do this," experience.

In preparation for practice, the Future of Family Medicine project recommends that programs "offer enhanced educational opportunities in areas needed by graduates." I am very proud of our innovative Areas of Concentration (AOC). An AOC is an option we offer that allows a resident to design focused training in an area of their choice. We have been national leaders in this concept. Areas of Concentration are currently available in hyperbaric medicine/wound management, advanced maternity care, diabetic patient education, geriatrics, end of life/palliative care, advanced dermatology, travel/international medicine, sports medicine, physician office laboratory, and osteoporosis/DXA scan interpretation. Others may be developed to meet a resident's specific area of interest.

Our CFMR sports medicine training and fellowship are exceptional! Two fellowship trained sports medicine faculty practice and teach at the Sports Medicine and Injury Clinic and at our various offices. Opportunities are available to be a team doctor at any of seven local high schools, and our fellow works at college-level sports as well. Fellows rotate through two different orthopedic practices as well as working side by side with our family medicine faculty in the CFM offices and at the Sports Medicine and Injury Center.

Perhaps the best measure of our program is the quality of our graduates, 100% of whom have passed their certifying board exams. Our graduates' board scores have consistently exceeded the national average. We are quite proud of our 67 graduates, 70% of whom practice in NC. Our graduates' practice locations range from rural (21%) to small town (21%) to suburban/urban (58%). We regularly receive feedback from our graduates and others about our graduates' readiness for practice. When surveyed one year after graduation, 100% of our graduates agreed that their residency training prepared them well for practice. Graduates of our program have found fulfilling careers in many different settings, including:

  • Group practice
  • Solo private practice
  • Rural family medicine
  • Hospitalist practice
  • Full-service family medicine with obstetrics
  • Family medicine inpatient/outpatient with colonoscopy
  • Family medicine residency faculty
  • Urgent care
  • Community health center practice
  • Hospice/palliative care
  • Pharmaceutical research

As a future family physician, a world of opportunities awaits you! The demand for family physicians is growing and will only increase in the future. You have the opportunity in this program to craft your education to fit your personal needs and goals. What other medical discipline offers such variety! In the end, finding the right residency is about finding the right fit. We believe Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency Program has much to offer both professionally and personally for you and your family. We look forward to showing you our first-rate facilities and program, and we hope you will visit soon. Tell us what you envision for your future; we will help make your dream come true.

Sincerely,
Mark D. Robinson, MD
Program Director
August 2007