University of Pennsylvania Health System Program

Program Identity & Fit

Penn's Family Medicine residency is an academic, university-affiliated program rooted in West Philadelphia, emphasizing full-spectrum practice from day one, with residents establishing continuity patient panels immediately and training across outpatient procedures, hospital medicine, obstetrics, substance use disorder treatment, gender-affirming care, HIV/hepatitis management, sports medicine, refugee health, and reproductive care. The program is explicitly structured around a social justice and community medicine curriculum that examines the historical and structural roots of health inequity in West Philadelphia, supported by an Anti-Racism Task Force and community partnerships. Research, quality improvement, and advocacy are positioned as tools residents are expected to use to reshape healthcare systems, though the program's stated outcomes lean toward clinical and leadership roles rather than a research-first identity. Graduates commonly become primary care physicians, family medicine obstetricians, hospitalists, medical educators, and healthcare leaders, indicating a program that values broad clinical competency paired with a social-mission orientation.