Curriculum and Educational Tracks

At Community Hospital East's Family Medicine Residency, we are committed to designing a residency program of the future that will prepare you well for your future practice.

We are proud to offer a curriculum that allows residents to learn the broad scope of family medicine while allowing flexibility to tailor learning to meet individual goals and interests.

Principles guiding our curriculum:

  • The majority of learning occurs in our continuity care clinics – the Family Medicine Center and Jane Pauley Community Health Center – starting from your first week of residency.
  • Family physicians are the best educators for family medicine. Specialists have an important supporting role, but not the primary role in your education.
  • Patients come first. You will be available in the office to care for your patients on a weekly basis throughout your entire residency and will have multiple days per week in your continuity clinic on the majority of your rotations.
  • Teams play an important role in healthcare and in your residency training. You will participate in team-based quality improvement projects and patient care management sessions.
  • Your learning is longitudinal. Shorter, one- to two-week rotations that often repeat themselves multiple times throughout your three years of residency training have taken the place of traditional month-long organ-based block rotations.
  • High-yield learning experiences are emphasized; shadowing-type rotations are minimized.
  • Our curriculum is flexible to meet your personal career goals. We offer more than the required amount of elective time as well as longitudinal tracks in underserved medicine, obstetrics, sports medicine and hospital medicine.
  • Underserved care is a vital part of our mission. Two residents from each class see patients primarily at our FQHC site, but all residents rotate there several times per year.

Longitudinal Curriculum

Your learning is longitudinal. Shorter, longitudinal rotations that repeat themselves multiple times throughout your three years of residency training have taken the place of traditional four-week, organ-based block rotations. Each of the following rotations occur in approximately two-week blocks, repeated multiple times throughout the year.

Educational Tracks

Community Hospital East Family Medicine Residency offers a number of optional educational focuses to broaden the medical careers of interested residents. Residents are not required to join a track. Residents in the underserved track may also be in other tracks.

Obstetrics Track

Dr. Sagi Mathew, obstetrics track directorOur program offers an obstetrics track for residents with a strong interest in family medicine obstetrics to help prepare them to actively practice obstetrics after graduation. We include emphasis on preconception, prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care. The track typically has 1 – 2 residents per year, and selection into the track is made in spring of the intern year.

Highlights of this track include:

  • At least 10 continuity deliveries, 40+ vaginal deliveries and C-section experience.
  • Obstetrics-related elective time.
  • Participation in a minimum of two Centering Pregnancy prenatal care groups (with one as a “junior faculty”).
  • Scholarly activity of the resident’s choosing within the field of obstetrics.
  • Opportunities to teach OB related topics to junior residents and faculty.

The obstetrics track is directed by Dr. Sagi Mathew. He completed a maternal-child health fellowship at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. He performs c-sections along with Dr. Judith Robinson, our board-certified OB/ GYN faculty, and Dr. Lindy Sergeant and Dr. Spencer Deig, who are fellowship trained family physicians. Additionally, Dr. Andrew Brougher, Dr. Melody Jordahl-Iafrato and Dr. Morgan Rhodes serve as faculty on our obstetrics service, providing non-surgical maternity care.

Sports Medicine Track

Jacklyn Kiefer, DOOur program offers a sports medicine track for residents interested in pursuing a Sports Medicine Fellowship after graduation. We follow track guidelines established by the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM) to give our residents the best chance of successfully matching into Sports Medicine Fellowship at the end of their residency. Our goal is to provide additional education, training, and exposure to the resident on top of the required core education provided at the residency. Matched residents can express interest in the track upon program entry. Dr. Kiefer also serves as Fellowship director of our newly approved Sports Medicine Fellowship.

  • During intern year the resident will be assigned to a local high school as a team physician alongside a board certified/CAQ certified sports medicine physician.
  • The resident will be supervised and mentored by the school’s sports medicine physician and athletic trainer and expected to cover football games, mass events and sports physicals.
  • Hands-on physical exam, injection, casting workshops, dedicated sports medicine or osteopathic rotations, journal clubs as well as a monthly meeting/didactic session.
  • Sports ultrasound training to gain experience with both diagnostic and injection guidance.
  • Progressive independence as PGY2 or PGY3 to become a team physician for a high school with indirect supervision.
  • Sideline coverage opportunities with U Indy, Indy Fuel (ECHL Hockey) and Indy 11 (USL Soccer).

The sports medicine track is directed by Dr. Jacklyn Kiefer who completed a fellowship in primary care sports medicine at ProMedica Toledo Hospital and served as a team physician for the University of Toledo (NCAA Division 1) for nine years.

Underserved Track

Andrew Brougher, MD, underserved track directorCommunity Hospital East Family Medicine Residency and The Jane Pauley Community Health Center partnered to begin an underserved residency track to train family physicians in the care of underserved populations in July 2016.

  • Following each year’s match, two incoming residents are selected into this track based on resident interest and experience.
  • The residents in this track provide primary care to a continuity panel of patients over their three-year residency program.
  • Residents receive hands-on training in a Federally Qualified Health Center, with all of its unique patient care needs and services.

Dr. Andrew Brougher directs the underserved track.

The Jane Pauley Community Health Center was established in 2009 with generous support from the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township, Community Health Network and the Community Health Network Foundation. It is named after Jane Pauley, a 1968 Warren Central High School graduate who grew up in the area and is well known as the former anchor of NBC-TV’s Today and Dateline programs, and current host of CBS Sunday Morning.

Hospital Medicine Track

Dr. Mark Lisby, hospitalist track directorOur program’s hospital medicine track is for residents interested in a career in hospital medicine after graduation. Residents can enter the track at the end of their first year of residency.

In addition to the program’s basic inpatient medicine requirements, the track includes the following:

  • 12 additional weeks of hospital medicine electives (ICU, ICU/Pulm, or Hospitalist electives) or inpatient-focused electives (i.e., cardiology, infectious disease) during the second and third years of residency.
  • Maintaining an inpatient procedure log.
  • Attendance at Medical Grand Rounds, presentation of an inpatient medicine topics at Tuesday conferences, and dedicated CME at outside conferences focusing on hospital medicine.
  • Participation in a hospital-based committee such as Ethics, Quality and Safety, or Family Medicine Quality.
  • Longitudinal research or a performance improvement (PI) project involving hospital medicine.

The hospital medicine track is directed by Dr. Mark Lisby, who is also co-director of Community Health Network’s Hospitalist Fellowship Program. In addition to the track, a hospitalist fellowship is highly recommended for resident physicians planning on full-time hospital medicine as a career.

Global Health Elective

Many of our residents and faculty physicians have a passion for underserved care. This interest is fulfilled through the work we do on the east side of Indianapolis, but also extends into rural Honduras through a partnership with the ENLACE foundation.