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Dear Potential Lawrence Family Medicine Resident,
Welcome to the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency! Are you interested in training where you are needed
the most, in an underserved urban community where you will make a difference while you grow into an
outstanding family physician? The Lawrence Family Medicine Residency is where your idealism will be
nurtured and will even grow. Our busy community health center network and adjacent single-residency
community teaching hospital serve a fascinating community in which to learn. Our residency has always
been an innovative and progressive place, starting in 1994 as the nation’s first accredited Community
Health Center-sponsored family medicine residency. Our residency is not just in Lawrence- it is an
integral part of Lawrence, and Lawrence is an integral part of our residency.
Our goal is to provide the best family medicine residency training in the country and to train the
best primary care physicians in the world and for the world- nothing less. We believe we are not
training people to be great residents for us for the next three years but rather for them to be great
family physicians for their patients and communities long after graduation. To do this requires lots
of attention to not only the curriculum but also to our residents’ quality of life, as highly
effective physicians must have highly effective support systems and well-rounded personal lives to
thrive in the long run.
Given that the US currently has over 45 million people who speak Spanish, a number that is rapidly
growing, we believe it will be increasingly difficult to provide healthcare for underserved populations
in the future without fluency in Spanish. Increasing globalization also necessitates that primary care
physicians with an interest in international medicine learn Spanish. At graduation from our program
you will be a superb family physician who has the additional valuable skill of “cultural competency”
as you will live it each day. While it is not necessary to know any Spanish upon entering the program,
the residency provides an intensive Spanish immersion course at the beginning of the first year
followed by ongoing on-site support, as well as numerous well-organized international experiences.
By the end of your first year of residency, you will be fluent in Spanish and will have mastered the
cultural aspects of delivering health care in an underserved Latino community, transferable far
beyond Lawrence.
We do not buy into the myth that tertiary center- based residency programs necessarily provide more
“academic” training. Our national reputation as an academically powerful program is well-deserved
and our residents get the “best of both worlds”. Our diverse and extremely talented faculty publishes
extensively, teaches at national meetings of family medicine educators, and lead academic family
medicine organizations. We have 3 fellowships (Faculty development, OB, and Integrative Medicine)
which add to our academics. All our residents learn full-spectrum family medicine which includes
strong maternity care training and tremendous experience in family medicine inpatient and outpatient
procedures. Only 30 minutes from Boston, we are academically affiliated with both UMass and Tufts,
giving our residents access to significant academic resources and teaching opportunities right here
in Lawrence.
Finally, and most importantly, people are passionate here about what they do. When I ask residents,
faculty, and staff what they most like about our residency program, the answer is universally-
“the people here” and the sense of belonging to a learning community that “feels like a family”.
We want to continue to attract people who intensely care about serving those who need it the most,
now and in the future. If you are committed to caring for the underserved and seek training in an
academically challenging and supportive environment, we invite you to join us!
Joe Gravel, MD
Residency Director, Lawrence Family Medicine Residency
President-Elect, Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors
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