Curriculum and Educational Tracks

• Family medicine is the only residency at Community Hospital East, other than our podiatry residency.
• Focus on working with underserved population and working to understand and improve health equity.
  • Community Health Network is committed to enhancing the health and well-being of those served and has many initiatives focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, for which it has been recognized nationally.
  • Multiple community programs and partnerships both through Community Benefit and DEI initiatives.
• Complete all required outpatient ob/gyn and pediatric rotations at The Jane Pauley Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center.
• Start your residency with a 2-week orientation rotation to introduce you to our clinical services and complete didactic training.
• Every resident has a week of Intersession in December or January.
  • Half of the residents are assigned to each week.
  • Activities include hands-on training, didactic lectures, clinic and community outreach.
• Dedicated time for learning and doing panel management for your panel of clinic patients.
• Participate in multiple focused clinics that occur on a regular basis at our Family Medicine Center.
  • Procedure clinics: General procedures and a women's health focused procedure clinic.
  • Sports medicine, staffed by Dr. Kiefer.
  • Recovery Clinic, staffed by Dr. LaHood, a faculty member for our addiction medicine fellowship.
  • OMT clinic for osteopathic physicians that are interested in continuing this portion of their education.
  • Podiatry clinic, staffed by a podiatrist.
• Work with clinical pharmacists in the outpatient and inpatient settings. We have a pharmacist at each clinic and assigned to our inpatient team.
• Work with behavioral health faculty along with a team of social workers at each clinic.
• Weekly didactic conferences every Tuesday afternoon.
  • Every week, residents and faculty meet for one full afternoon to learn about pertinent topics in family medicine. In addition to medical topics, which run the gamut of family medicine, areas covered include behavioral science, medical ethics, complimentary/integrative medicine, practice management and organized medicine. Presenters include full-time faculty, specialists practicing at Community hospitals, residents and various speakers from the community.
• Small group sessions to have tailored education with other members of your class.
  • Topics include behavioral health, pharmacy, practice management, and many others.
• Partnership with Gennesaret Free Clinic; every other Thursday our residents, along with pharmacy residents, provide care to patients.
• Participate in network-sponsored community outreach events.
  • Examples include Indiana Health Fair, Indy Pride, Indiana Latino Expo, and Black Men in White Coats Youth Summit. Watch: BMWC 2023 recap video.
• Outpatient mentor rotation
  • Spend a week with a practicing family physician, often one with a practice type the resident is interested in for their future practice.
  • Four weeks total: 1 week in the first 6 months and 1 in the second 6 months of both the PGY2 and PGY3 years
• Work as sideline physician for local high school football team.
• Medical student teaching.
  • Residents can participate in teaching medical students from first- to fourth-year. These opportunities include educational lectures, hands-on demonstrations and supervising students on clinical rotations.
• Global health elective
  • Established relationship with ENLACE foundation in Honduras

• No overnight call as all nights covered by night float team!
  • Residents will have occasional shifts on Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to cover the OB floor.
• Night float changed from 2 weeks (6 days on, 1 off) to 1 week Saturday - Friday. This rotation is paired with a week in continuity clinic.
• Decreased number of night float weeks during intern year due to change in night float coverage.
• Supervision of night float team by nocturnists at the hospital instead of faculty who are not physically at the hospital.
• Hospital service mostly staffed by two faculty members that serve only as hospitalists, Dr. Amber Lehmann (med/peds) and Dr. Aria Arrizabalaga (family medicine).
• Changes to Emergency Medicine rotation structure and schedule after hearing feedback from residents.
• Updated resident work room in the hospital for inpatient team after initiative by chief residents will greatly enhance education for residents.

A variety of other elective opportunities are available locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. You also can propose elective weeks to tailor your residency experience to your educational needs. The first year schedule is full of required rotations; therefore, there are only 2 weeks of electives in your first year. Options for first year electives are limited. However, second years typically have 9 weeks of elective time and third years have 14 weeks of elective time.

Residents will participate in quality improvement or process improvement projects that fulfill the scholarly activity requirement outlined by the ABFM. Faculty will facilitate these projects. Residents are expected to present their projects locally or regionally. Residents are encouraged to pursue additional research opportunities if they desire. The vast majority of faculty are willing to assist with additional research projects.

The behavioral science program serves residents by providing structured educational opportunities in conjunction with in-vivo learning via direct patient care. Through the longitudinal behavioral science curriculum, residents receive education on core behavioral health topics and skills with emphasis on biopsychosocial contextual care. The curriculum also encompasses training on communication skills and aims to foster provider self-awareness and reflective practice. The in-house behavioral health team, which consists of a psychologist and multiple social workers, is available for an array of patient care interventions, thus offering ample in-clinic learning opportunities and support. Additionally, the behavioral health faculty is available to provide support to residents in a professional context throughout their training.

The practice management curriculum acquaints residents with the business knowledge needed to lead, participate in, and potentially establish a financially viable medical practice.

Dedicated time to work as a group with faculty guidance on how to manage your panel of clinic patients. This includes education on topics such as how to view our own practice data such as colon cancer rates or diabetes control, creating reports of patients who have needs to be addressed, and thinking about how to best improve gaps in preventive and chronic care.

Our 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:

• 80 vaginal deliveries, 20 c-sections as first assist, and 5-10 continuity deliveries
• Obstetrics-related elective time
• Participation in Centering Pregnancy when available
• 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. Matthew Main, 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.

Our 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.

• 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.

Community 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 at The Jane Pauley Community Health Center throughout 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.

Our 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. Amber Lehmann. In addition to the track, a hospitalist fellowship is highly recommended for resident physicians planning on full-time hospital medicine as a career.