Founded in 1982, Highland’s Primary Care Track was one of the first internal medicine programs in the United States to adopt an explicit focus on primary care. Medicine has changed a lot in the last 35 years, but we have never lost sight of our mission: to train excellent general internists who will bring evidence based, community responsive, socially just healthcare to vulnerable and underserved communities. 

 

Some of the highlights of the program include:

 

• Primary Care Immersion Weeks: These weeks provide protected time for residents to engage in activities that improve essential primary care skills. This includes community outreach, hands on workshops, visiting community clinics, and attending conferences, just to name a few. Interns have 2 PCI weeks, while PGY 2’s and PGY 3’s have 4 weeks each year. 

• Second Clinics: Second and third year residents select the outpatient clinic of their choice to have a 2 year longitudinal experience. The goal of second clinics is for residents to have more exposure and experiences in the area of outpatient medicine that they are most interested in. Past second clinic choices include our HIV clinic, Alameda Public Health, Women’s clinic, and Kaiser outpatient clinic.

• Primary Care Track Cohort: All of our primary care residents are in the same clinic cohort. This means that once a month you’ll get to spend a week in clinic with your Primary Care co-residents, which provides plenty of opportunity for bonding, support, and mentorship. During these primary care weeks we also have scheduled primary care content, such as our PC Corner conference, PC Journal Club, and PC-specific content during Academic Half Day.

• Home Visits: Primary Care residents have been at the heart of our Home Visits program since it was founded in 2016, which was paused during 2020 due to the pandemic, but has since resumed as of summer 2021.

• Electives: During their second and third years, residents have 4 weeks of elective, for a total of two full months of protected elected time during their residency. Prior residents have used this elective time to do research, practice rural medicine, as well as travel oversees for global health experiences. 

• Annual Retreat: The Primary Care Retreat has been held yearly for over 30 years and is a closely held PC tradition. It’s an important time where we get away from the hospital to debrief, bond, and have fun together. 

 

Our Primary Care residency track has an intern class of 5 and a total program size of 14. The smaller size of our track allows for a “family within a family” atmosphere where residents receive hands on and in depth mentorship and support as they make their journey toward providing excellent primary care to those who need it most. 

​

Palak Kumar, MD

Associate Program Director, Primary Care Track

Email: pakumar@alamedahealthsystem.org