IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Resident selection to the UBC Family Medicine program is a central process. Only one interview will be offered regardless of the number of sites an applicant may apply to. Applicants should submit the same application separately to each site. Once you apply to a CaRMS number for a specific UBC site and get matched, the program is unable to facilitate transfer from one site to another.

UBC Family Medicine is a fully accredited program with 16 different training sites distributed across BC. The program has strong central support, dedicated Lead Faculty with program-wide responsibilities in the areas of curriculum, evaluation, faculty development, research, behavioral medicine and informatics. They provide vital cross connections between sites, creating a strong matrix system of educational support to site directors, site faculty and residents.

Overview of UBC Family Medicine

UBC Family Medicine is a fully accredited program with 15 different training sites distributed across the province of BC. The program has in place a strong central support, dedicated Lead Faculty with program-wide responsibilities in the areas of curriculum, evaluation, faculty development, research, behavioural medicine and informatics. They provide vital cross-connections between sites, which create a strong matrix system of educational support to site directors, site faculty and residents.

Our program is generally divided into three streams: the urban training sites, the regional training sites, and the rural and northern sites. Each site offers opportunity to experience Family Medicine in a specific context. Here is a brief overview:

Urban sites
1. St. Paul's - emphasizes the inner city and marginalized populations including, GLBT health care, addiction medicine and HIV care and urban Aboriginal health
2. Vancouver Fraser - (formerly known as Greater Vancouver) offers a diverse urban and suburban experience in ethnically diverse communities from Surrey to North Vancouver
3. Victoria - known for its well developed community health programs with a special focus in palliative care
4. The IMG St. Paul's program - similar to St. Paul's but caters to international medical graduates who come from very different backgrounds and undergraduate training experiences.
5. Surrey Site - The city of Surrey is the second largest city in BC with a fast population growth, and it has the largest acute care hospital in the Fraser health region.

Midsize training sites
1. Chilliwack - currently concentrates on producing strong clinical skills in community-based office and hospital/ER setting, but also has access to practices and electives in Aboriginal populations.
2. Nanaimo - has a strong Family Practice learning model which is community group practice focused.
3. Abbotsford - was added to our program in 2010. With a newly built Regional Hospital predominantly run by family doctors, it promises to be an opportunity for strong family practice training.

Northern and Rural sites
1. Rural site - has a major rurally-based focus and curriculum with a fully integrated second year based in 2-3 rural communities
2. Prince George - stresses training for northern communities plus aboriginal health care
3. Rural Peace Liard site (based in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek) - offers broad range of rural medicine training in North East region
4. Rural North West site (based in Terrace) - offers broad range of rural medicine in the North West region
5. Northern Rural - comprises of a PGY1 year in Prince George and a PGY2 year in rural communities
6. IMG Rural Fraser - comprises of a PGY1 year in the Greater Vancouver area, and PGY2 in rural communities
7. IMG Rural Vancouver Island - comprises of a PGY1 year in Victoria, and PGY2 in rural Vancouver Island communities

On top of these 15 sites, one site has a special focus:
1. Aboriginal site - based in Victoria, it has an added focus on the health care needs of the Aboriginal population.

Information about the UBC program and the distributed sites are available on the program's "virtual Open House" at http://www.familymed.ubc.ca/carms/