Residency Program Overview

The UC San Diego Family Medicine Residency Program has partnered with the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine to develop an area of concentratin in integrative medicine.

Participants start the program in their 2nd year. The syllabus is based on an online curriculum purchased from the University of Arizona, which has a leading fellowship in integrative medicine. The program also consists of onsite activities that include: didactics and case presentations, rotations with integrative family medicine physicians, integrative cardiologists, pain specialists, acupuncturists and osteopaths, workshops in healthy cooking, mindfulness based stress reduction, tai chi and opportunities to partake in integrative medicine research.

When the curriculum is successfully completed, the resident will receive a certificate of completion from the University of Arizona. This certificate will be recognized by the newly forming National Board of Integrative Medicine and will move the resident closer to being eligible to sit for those boards.

Among family medicine residencies, UC San Diego is renowned for its excellence in sports medicine. The UC San Diego Family Medicine Residency offers the sports medicine area of concentration, which provides its residents the opportunity to become proficient in the most advanced, cutting-edge techniques and skills in athletic medicine today.

Through specially designed electives, research opportunities, continuing education and real-world exposure to athletics at all levels throughout San Diego, residents gain the knowledge needed to excel in the field of sports medicine. This program seeks to create leaders who will contribute to the advancement of the field throughout their careers. Highlights of the program include:

•  Learning core principles of musculoskeletal evaluation
•  Becoming proficient in organizing and conducting pre-participation evaluations
•  Gaining competence and experience in sideline and locker room medicine
•  Learning the techniques and indications for MSK injections, splinting/casting, and MSK imaging
•  Becoming a member of professional sports medicine organizations
•  Attending and contributing to local or national conferences
•  Teaching athletes, patients, students and fellow healthcare providers about fundamental principles of sports medicine
•  Critically evaluating and contributing to sports medicine-based literature
•  Gaining experience at sporting events at UCSD and throughout San Diego at all levels of competition

While all residents at UC San Diego gain procedural competence in many outpatient and inpatient procedures including skin biopsies, cryotherapy, joint injections, circumcisions, colposcopy, IUD placement, Nexplanon placement, and many others, the advanced procedure area of concentration  allows residents who identify a particular interest in procedures to spend elective time acquiring further skills. Additionally, the procedure residents are identified within their peer groups as teachers of advanced procedures.

The area of concentration begins with a specially tailored month long elective in the beginning of 2nd year. This is followed by a longitudinal training track with protected half-day weekly procedure clinic to target and master the desired competencies and skill sets.

By graduation, residents are guaranteed to be competent according to national standards in the following procedures:

• Lumbar puncture
• Paracentesis
• Central venous access
• Bedside ultrasound

• Biopsy and excision of benign and malignant skin lesions
• Colposcopy and biopsies

Lifestyle Medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine-certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

 The Lifestyle Medicine Area of Concentration for the UCSD Family Medicine Residency is an educational plan designed for residents with a specific interest in Lifestyle Medicine. Through a robust set of applied and experiential learning opportunities as well as asynchronous modules, the concentration fulfills the graduate medical education pathway to become certified in Lifestyle Medicine.  Residents who complete this AOC will be eligible to sit for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) exam upon graduation from residency and become certified by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. 

Additional expertise can be gained in the following:

EGD, Colonoscopy, C-sections, LEEPs, Cervical conization, rhino laryngoscopy, rapid sequence intubation, procedural sedation, thoracentesis, skin cancer management/resections, cosmetic procedures, and many more.

Interested applicants should contact the residency for further details. For applicants who are interested in other concentrations, the residency is open to the creation of new areas of concentrations by residents.