History

The Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) was established in 1971, shortly after the specialty of family practice was created in 1969. The founding chairman, Dr. Laurel Case, assembled a faculty comprised largely of family physicians who left practice to enter academic medicine. The original goal of the Department was to create a presence for the new specialty in the medical school and to start a family practice residency at University Hospital. The first residents entered the program in 1971 and the University's family practice residency served as the State's only residency in the field until the Cascades East residency in Klamath Falls opened in 1994.

1980

By the early 1980s, the Department had established a residency program with a strong reputation, a solid clinical practice located on the University campus, and an important presence for the specialty of family practice within the OHSU School of Medicine.

1984

In 1984, Dr. Robert B. Taylor came to Oregon from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina as the Department's second chairman. Dr. Taylor recruited faculty members who had formal fellowship training and prior academic experience,and the decade of the 1980s witnessed substantial expansion, notably in the Department's predoctoral education programs.

1988

The late 1980s witnessed a comprehensive overhaul of the School of Medicine's curriculum that involved several important curricular innovations. First, the School of Medicine developed a Principles of Clinical Medicine course to run longitudinally through the first two years of medical school, involving approximately one day per week of medical student time. Half of this time was devoted to small group problem-based learning, while one half day per week was dedicated to ongoing clinical care to insure that our students had a continuity clinical experience from the very first days of medical school. The Principles of Clinical Medicine course was developed by an interdisciplinary committee that was headed by Drs. William Toffler and Scott Fields from the Department of Family Medicine. In 1988, an ambulatory care clerkship was added to the third year curriculum of the School of Medicine, which ultimately evolved into a required third year clerkship in family medicine for our medical students.

1990

The 1990s were a decade of rapid growth for the Department. During this time our faculty increased from fifteen to fifty primary faculty members. In 1991, OHSU developed a third year primary care clerkship in conjunction with the Oregon Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program; this six-week clerkship allows students to travel to small towns throughout Oregon to learn about community-based health care, especially in a rural setting. We established three new family practice centers in the Portland Metropolitan Area – OHSU Family Medicine at Gabriel Park, Richmond and Scappoose – and relocated two thirds of our residents into community-based clinics away from the OHSU campus. With this clinical expansion, the volume of patient care in our practice grew from approximately 30,000 outpatient visits to more than 120,000 outpatient visits a year in family medicine alone.

1994

In 1994 the Cascades East Family Practice Residency opened in Klamath Falls, Oregon, with six resident positions in each of the three years of training. Dr. James Calvert was hired as the founding program director for this residency program, whose curricular focus is on the training of rural family physicians. In 1996 the Department established a four-year combined family medicine/preventive medicine residency.

1998

In 1998 Dr. John Saultz was selected as the Department's third chairman, after having served as the residency director and vice chairman in the Department and as Assistant Dean of Primary Care of the School of Medicine.

1999

In 1999, the Department received funding for a two-year Research Fellowship to provide formal training for researchers in the field of family medicine. Also, we began a one-year Leadership Fellowship for Family Practice Residency graduates.

2001

The Providence Family Practice Residency in Metro Portland opened in 2001. This new program, affiliated with our Department, brings the total number of Family Medicine residency programs in Oregon and nearby Vancouver, Washington, to four. Also in 2001, Dr. Rob Ross was appointed to serve as Director of the Cascades East Family Practice Residency Program, as Dr. Calvert moved to a role in clinical research.

2002

In 2002, we began the Oregon Rural Practice Research Network (ORPRN), led by Dr. L. J. Fagnan, helping physicians across Oregon learn the answers to important clinical questions.

Over the past few years the Department has developed an enriching international presence. We currently have had physician exchange programs in the Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Japan. We have hosted a number of visiting physicians from these countries, as well as from Belgium, Russia, Korea, Israel, New Zealand, England and Saudi Arabia.

2006

The OHSU Family Medicine Clinic, on the 9th floor of the new OHSU Center for Health and Healing at the South Waterfront Campus opened in October, 2006, and the old Marquam Hill/Emma Jones Hall clinic closed its doors.

2007

Our department’s research enterprise has enjoyed remarkable growth over the past few years, allowing us to obtain some competitive grant awards and to attract several national-class research faculty to our Department. In 2007, Richard A. Deyo, MD, MPH was selected as the Kaiser Permanente Professor in Evidence Based Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine.

Also in 2007, Roger Garvin, MD was chosen to be the Department's new residency director. Dr. Garvin is only the fourth person to hold this position in the 35 year history of the Department.

2008

In 2008, the Fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Care received initial funding support, and the Sports Medicine Fellowship was approved.

Throughout the Department's history we have had a strong Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG). The OHSU FMIG has received the AAFP Program of Excellence Award ten times in the twelve years that it has been awarded, the only FMIG in America to be so honored.

For more than a decade, U.S. News and World Report has placed OHSU School of Medicine number two among the 128 U.S. allopathic medical schools.

Through the hard work of its University-based faculty and staff and our 280 volunteer faculty members, the Department continues to lead key programs in the medical school, administer two of the nation’s leading residency programs, care for patients in five family health centers, and initiate stimulating new activities that advance family medicine in Oregon, the USA and worldwide.