Annual Reports

• Our undergraduate medical education programming includes our Primary Care and Outpatient Clerkship (PCOM); Inpatient Family Medicine Advanced Clinical Elective (Inpatient ACE); various Outpatient Family Medicine Advanced Clinical Electives (Outpatient ACE); Caring for Refugees Elective; and our Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care Elective.
• Through support from the Commonwealth, we expanded our residency by two slots, bringing the total number of our intern cohort to 10. By the year 2026, we will have 30 residents in our program. Our residency is also widely recognized and ranked in the top 5% of all residencies by the Doximity Ranking.

We continue to grow and expand our clinical footprint to more effectively meet the access needs in our area. Improved access is a critical element to the UVA Health Strategic Plan and our department is doing its best to help meet these needs:

• In 2024, we opened the Employee Primary Care Clinic to improve primary care access among UVA employees.• We are continuing to recruit additional clinicians to meet the tremendous demands on patient access.
We also continue to expand our research and scholarship mission:
• We are ranked 31st by Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) Ranking of NIH funding among all departments of family medicine.
• We are currently recruiting 3 additional investigators in the department.
• Our faculty continue to be active in the scholarship realm through grants, publications and presentations.

We continue to expand our level of engagement within UVA Health, our community, the Commonwealth, and nationally/internationally through participation in new initiatives, new community activities, various roles in regional and national professional organizations, our research, and the dissemination of new knowledge through our scholarship.

I am so delighted to be starting my second term as Chair beginning in 2025 and, as I reflect on our significant accomplishments in 2024, I am looking forward to our continued growth and impact in 2025 and beyond.

Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M Seward Professor and Chair
UVA Department of Family Medicine

We have added 2 new practices: 1) Zion’s Crossroads and 2) in March of 2024, a new Employee Health practice in the Hospital West Complex;

Thanks to two successful proposals to the Virginia Department of Assistance Services and support from UVA Health leadership, the department will be expanding the residency program from 8 residents per year to 10 per year in July of 2024. This is the first expansion to take place within the residency since the 1970s;

We have expanded our number of providers, hiring 14 in the past year, including hiring a new Vice Chair for Clinical Operations for the department;

Our publication numbers have steadily increased over the years, moving from 24 publications in 2019 to 79 publications in 2023;

The department continues to expand its activities related to community engagement and has appointed Dr. Terri Babineau as the Director of Community Engagement;

The department continues to expand its activities related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, led by Dr. Sarah Dalrymple;

Doximity has ranked our residency in the top 5th percentile of all residency programs in 2023;

Our department is much stronger financially than it was 5 years ago – we continue to provide comprehensive continuity primary care and expand access, as well as solidify our high-quality expert care in gender medicine, obesity medicine, the care of refugees and immigrants, point- of-care ultrasound, behavioral health, and sports medicine.

I am proud of how we continue to grow to meet the needs of our patients and learners. Please take a few minutes to peruse some of our activities and happenings from 2023.

Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M Seward Professor and Chair
UVA Department of Family Medicine

The Gala was particularly poignant as we brought together all of our living department Chairs and heard about the impact members of this department have had on so many. It was a truly meaningful experience that reminded us all of our impact on each other, our profession and our patients. We have included four pages of photos from various events over the week-end for you to enjoy.

The department continues to expand its efforts in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. This year we have a designated “JEDI” (Dr. Sarah Dalrymple), who is championing our efforts in these areas.

We continue to strive to provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based care to our patients and continue to maintain our NCQA recognition as a Patient Centered Medical Home at all of our 5 clinical practice sites. Our clinicians and advanced practice providers continue to be recognized as top performers in providing an outstanding patient experience. In this year’s report, we have also included a few brief examples of the local and national impact of our faculty.

Our faculty and residents continue to be academically productive and we have included descriptions of the grants, publications and presentations that reflect the breadth of our work.

The department also continues to grow. We hired 7 new physician and Nurse Practitioner faculty as well as a host of new staff at our practices. All are vital to our success as a department.
I am so proud of what we are accomplishing as a department. Over the next year, our residency will be expanding its activities related to community engagement, not only improving the education of our residents, but also expanding our ability to care for those around us.

I hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights from 2022.

Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M Seward Professor and Chair
UVA Department of Family Medicine

The department continues to place great value on diversity and inclusion and this is evident in our residency recruitment practices, our curriculum, and the important activities of our department’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Family Medicine remains a leader in UVA medical education. The PACLAC clerkship (our combined Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Geriatrics clerkship) led by Dr. Terri Babineau, received a perfect rating by students this past year. Our residency program continues to train outstanding clinicians through their diverse curricula, including content areas related to health equity, obesity, and substance use disorders.

For the first time, all five of our clinics are now designated as NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Homes. In addition, we have great opportunities to expand our faculty and primary care footprint, which is in direct alignment with UVA Health’s One Future Together vision.

We continue to grow and expand our research efforts. The year 2021 was the first year that our department was ranked in listing of NIH funding for Departments of Family Medicine (we were ranked 24th). We hope to continue to build on these successes.

Our faculty continue to be actively involved in community engagement. For example, Dr. Tim Rucker spearheaded an effort to establish a pharmacy in Nelson County through his collaboration with the community and UVA Health leadership.
I am so proud of all of our accomplishments this year and our ability to persevere. As we begin 2022, indictors regarding the COVID pandemic are improving and we are particularly excited about our plans for our Department’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Please enjoy some of the highlights from 2021.

Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M. Seward Professor and Chair
UVA Department of Family Medicine

Even through all of the challenges we have faced, our department has continued to move forward in accomplishing our missions in patient care, education, research and faculty development. This report highlights our many successes this year.

We adapted our clinical efforts to better meet the needs of our patients by leading the Health System in telemedicine visits and actively collaborating in the creation and implementation of a community call line.

We recruited an outstanding group of resident interns. In addition, we typically see a substantial increase over the national average of in-training exams for our PGY2 and PGY3 residents, reflecting their hard work and significant knowledge growth during their time in our program.

We hired a new and highly qualified faculty member to lead our predoctoral education efforts and, this year, the number of graduating medical students choosing family medicine was almost three times greater than last year.

We are continuing to expand our research and scholarly activities: the number of faculty publications has more than doubled from last year; we are expanding our research infrastructure; and a number of faculty have received new federal and foundation grant awards.

Our faculty have continued to contribute in exceptionally meaningful ways at the local, regional and national level and have received multiple honors and recognitions for their clinical care, teaching and research. For example, Dr. Fern Hauck was the 2020 recipient of the Curtis G. Hames Research Award.

This year we are also honoring Peter Slagle Ham, MD, a much beloved faculty member in our department who was greatly admired for his love of teaching and his dedication to providing the highest quality of care to his patients. Peter exemplified who we are as academic family doctors and we are launching an effort to establish a memorial fund to honor him. This fund will support department efforts to enhance family medicine education and it will help us continue his legacy.

I am so proud of how our department members have responded during this momentous year and it has only served to reinforce the extraordinary qualities that are UVA Family Medicine.

Stay Healthy, Live Well

Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M. Seward Professor and Chair
UVA Department of Family Medicine

Our residency program matches 8 residents per year (24 total) and is nationally recognized for its longitudinal and vigorous immersion in evidence-based medicine and information mastery.

Our International Family Medicine Clinic at the UVA Primary Care Center is a model program and is dedicated to providing comprehensive primary care for refugees from all over the world.

Our Western Albemarle Crozet practice is the home of UVA’s multidisciplinary Gender Medicine team and provides primary and specialty care for transgender patients from all corners of the Commonwealth. We also just opened the primary care Cancer Survivorship Clinic in our Pantops practice.

Many of our faculty and residents have received regional and national awards and recognitions in 2019. Among them, Catherine Casey, MD, is named Physician of the Year by Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (VAFP); and Jacqueline Britz, MD, MSPH, received the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education and is appointed to serve on the AAFP Commission on Governmental Advocacy (CGA).

We are excited about our future. As we continue to grow, we will focus on collaborating with colleagues both across and beyond UVA grounds, with community partners, and with residents of the neighborhoods we serve. We plan to expand our practice footprint and training opportunities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are already taking steps to further develop our primary care-global health program and expand its reach worldwide. We also will continue to build research capacity and seek to become a national leader in healthcare transformation.

Thank you for taking the time to peruse our accomplishments. We are proud of our efforts as we strive for excellence in our mission: To Heal, To Teach, To Discover, and To Serve.

Sincerely,
Li Li, MD, PhD
Walter M. Seward Professor and Chair
Department of Family Medicine