Welcome to the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s Office of Research and Professional Develoment.
The Research Division provides guidance to faculty and residents in all aspects, including design, methods, and ethical conduct of clinical, public health, and medical education research.
We make every effort needed to encourage and facilitate faculty and residents’ pursuit and attainment of excellence in all spheres of scholarship. We train our residents to develop a research attitude, with an evidence-based form of inquiry, in order to become informed practitioners and life long learners. Faculty members model the requisite attitudes and behaviors to guide and inspire our trainees. In addition to research and scholarly work within the Department, we are involved with collaborative work, in both teaching and research, with other UIC departments, as well as with other institutions.
Mission and Vision Heading link
UIC Department of Family and Community Medicine Research Mission is to use research and scholarship as tools for cultivating knowledge, attitudes, and skills for continuous, life-long learning, by:
- Developing and testing innovative instruction and assessment methods, we continuously strive to explore better ways of teaching students, residents and faculty to be competent, compassionate and humane family physicians and educators.
- Studying clinical medicine and health systems issues, as well as the larger impact of social and economic variables on health and healthcare, we aim to provide high quality, evidence-based, patient-centered, culturally appropriate care to the diverse patient populations we serve.
- Sharing and disseminating what we know and what we learn, we attempt to facilitate cohesiveness and team building.
Our long-term vision is directed towards:
- Utilizing national and international research to identify gaps in the determinants of risk for preventable diseases particularly in vulnerable populations.
- Evaluating existing interventions or developing and subsequently evaluating new interventions to enhance effectiveness in health promotion, disease prevention and promoting health literacy.
- Examining the cost-effectiveness of interventions and their impact on health promotion and disease prevention, as well as the public health decision-making process.
- Guiding our trainees to make more informed (evidence-based) decisions about appropriate forms of care, with an emphasis on patient-centered, culturally appropriate care for diverse populations.
Integrating health professions education with health care delivery with the goal to ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Research Activities Heading link
These are some of the activities this division engages in in the areas of medical education and clinical and public health.
Activities related to medical education
- Clinical reasoning
- Evidence-based Medicine
- Faculty development
- Medical decision-making
- Medical informatics
- Promoting scholarship (per Boyer’s model; discovery, integration, application, and teaching)
- Psychometrics
- Role of direct observation in assessment of clinical competence
- Teaching and assessment of ACGME core competencies
Activities related to clinical and/or public health
- Cultural competence
- End-of-life care
- Epidemiology and management of chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes mellitus, hypertension, asthma)
- Nutrition and obesity
- Occupational medicine
- Patient safety
- Patient-centered care
- Patient-physician communication
- Prevention and management of STDs & HIV/AIDS
- Quality care
- Reducing health disparities
- Reproductive health
Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center Heading link
Also known as MATEC, The Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center is based at the , Department of Family Medicine. MATEC is a publicly-funded training center that providing clinical training and support to health care professionals, with a focus on HIV/AIDS care and treatment. Learn more about their work, including their ongoing projects, as well as training and resources.