Family and Community Medicine
From the Chair
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Roger Zoorob, MD, MPH, FAAFP Frank S. Royal Senior Professor and Chair |
Greetings to our alumni, faculty, staff, trainees, and colleagues!
I proudly present to you a review of the tremendous progress, accomplishments, and rewards achieved by our department over the past academic year.
At the academic level, the Family Medicine Residency program filled its six slots in the match, including two students from Meharry Medical College. The Occupational Medicine Residency program received renewed accreditation for three years and is getting ready to admit a full complement of residents for the first time in the next academic year. The Preventive Medicine Residency program received full accreditation for five years. Dr. Ruth Stewart was appointed as the new director of Pre-doctoral Education in January 2007. She already has revamped both the didactic sessions and clinical preceptorships for third year medical students.
In the arenas of research and community health, departmental faculty members have been extremely productive in obtaining external and investigator-initiated funding. In 2007-2008, the Department received approximately $5.6 million in new and continuing grant awards. I was successful in securing funding for the HRSA Residency training in the Patient Centered Medical Home Model of Care grant, HRSA Pre-doctoral Training and Academic Administrative Units in Primary Care grants, a Chronic Disease Management grant from the state of Tennessee, and the competitive renewal of the Southeast Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Training Center grant from the CDC. Vice Chair Paul Juarez, PhD, continues to lead two, five year research grants funded by the CDD: the Nashville Urban Partnership Academic Center of Excellence to Prevent Youth Violence and the Jackson Teen Seat Belt Study. In addition, he led the institution’s effort in submitting a grant to the NCMHD/NIH to establish a Minority Health Disparities Research Center at Meharry. Dr. Sangita Chakrabarty received funding for an occupational medicine training grant. Irwin Goldzweig M.S. received renewed funding for the Meharry-State Farm Alliance. He also received an award from the Ford Foundation to establish a Child Passenger Safety Center at Meharry and a grant from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to develop a cultural toolbox to promote motor vehicle safety.
The Division of Community Health continues to be very productive in grantsmanship, enabling the department to be a leader in community service and education on unintentional injury, domestic violence, fetal alcohol syndrome, and chronic disease management. Dr. Juarez was awarded a competitive renewal of the model, statewide Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in partnership with the West TN AHEC, the TN Primary Care Association (Central TN AHEC), and Cherokee Health Systems (East TN AHEC). In this new award, the Community Health Division is working with our partners to use web-based technology to transmit Family Medicine grand rounds and other continuing medical education programs to community health centers and preceptor’s offices across the state. Through the Southeast Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Training Center, we have continued to provide continuing education about alcohol exposure prevention to health professionals across the southeast. In addition, our Family Health Centers now operate regular smoking cessation and chronic disease management clinics.
Through the innovation, hard work, and achievements of our faculty, staff, and residents, the Department continues to witness steady growth in its clinical activity. Our Family Health Centers have experienced a 33% increase in patient visits over the past year. Through contracts with the Veterans’ Administration, the department now provides community-based veterans care at its Family Health Centers and staffs and operates a primary care clinic for women veterans.
On behalf of our faculty, residents, and staff we are very proud to have the opportunity to share in greater detail with you through this annual report, an accounting of our achievements and successes.
