The mission of CERFCM is to provide interdisciplinary education and research opportunities for students, residents and health professionals, and primary care for individuals and families with particular reference to health needs of diverse communities.

The Center includes five interrelated programs:

Stanford medical student curriculum in Family Medicine

The academic program in Family Medicine prepares students and residents for careers in Family Medicine. The program has developed special emphases on the recruitment and retention of minority students, the placement of students and graduates in practices relating to medically underserved populations, the collaboration of physicians and PAs and NPs in primary care and a multidisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to geriatrics.

Family Medicine Residency Program at O’Connor Hospital

The Family Medicine Residency Program is located at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose and is the only one in the Bay Area south of San Francisco. The core faculty of 13 family physicians, one behavioral scientist, and a social worker has backgrounds and special interests in epidemiology, HIV, women’s health, informatics, travel medicine, sports medicine, geriatrics, clinical ethics, pain management, and behavioral science. The program also has part-time faculty in pediatrics and psychiatry.

The residency program supports an accredited and nationally acclaimed Sports Medicine Fellowship.

Primary Care Associate Program

The 16-month Primary Care Associate Program prepares physician assistants for primary care practice in underserved communities. Students receive their didactic course work at Stanford and then return to community sites for clinical preceptorships. Students enter the Program with an average of five or more years of academic experience and eight or more years of clinical experience.

The Program emphasizes diversity with an average class enrollment of 40% minority students. Over 1000 graduates practice mostly in California, the majority in primary care and underserved settings.

Stanford Geriatric Education Center

The Stanford Geriatric Education Center provides interdisciplinary ethnogeriatric programs and curriculum materials to educate health care faculty, students and health professionals in knowledge and skills to care for older adults, focusing especially on the cultural issues associated with aging and health.

Ethnogeriatrics, a term now common in the medical literature to refer to health care for diverse elders, was first developed at the SGEC which continues to be acknowledged as the national leaders in this field.

Stanford faculty clinical practice

The Center’s program faculty has two practice sites which provide substantial teaching. One site, Stanford Family Medicine, is on campus in the Blake Wilber medical office building adjacent to Stanford Hospital. The residency faculty has two practice sites, the Family Health Center for both resident and faculty patients and a faculty practice, Family Medicine Associates.