Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program
The Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program offers a wide range of training experiences in both academic and community settings, serving a broad patient population. Our mission is to train service-minded Family Medicine leaders and provide care across the lifespan FOR ALL through excellence in education, research, and community engagement.
While the program officially launched in 1973, its root trace back to 1969 as a general practice training program, making it one of the oldest family medicine residencies in the country. Today, we are a single program with a unified curriculum delivered across three distinct tracks, each defined by the location of its continuity clinic.
- Urban Track at Atrium Health Biddle Point
- Traditional Track at Atrium Health Elizabeth Family Medicine
- Community Apprenticeship Track at Atrium Health Union Family Practice
Our residents train in a dynamic clinical environment where interdisciplinary collaboration is woven into daily practice. Residents work alongside multidisciplinary teams to gain hands-on experience in preventative care, acute care, chronic disease management (including HIV and hepatitis C), women’s health (including obstetrics), pediatrics, musculoskeletal care, and wide array of office-based procedures. Our clinics’ payer mix includes private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and uninsured patients – with and without Atrium Health assistance.
Our residents benefit from a variety of departmental programs that emphasize excellence in primary care, including award-winning clinical research, medical student education, and meaningful community engagement.
The residency program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
For more information, please contact our Program Coordinators at FMRP@AdvocateHealth.org.
Excellence in Teaching
Each of our residency sites were recognized by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine for Excellence in Teaching for ensuring high quality care through a commitment to educate those who will provide primary care in America.
An Inside Look at the Family Medicine Residency Program
Learning and Growing: A Resident's Perspective
Where You Will Train
Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center
Family Medicine residents spend the majority of the first year at Carolinas Medical Center (CMC), a large, tertiary-care medical center, cementing relationship with residents in other specialties while preparing them to be in our community hospitals, Atrium health Mercy and Atrium Health Union. The maternal and pediatric Family Medicine inpatient service is located at CMC for the residents in the Biddle Point and Elizabeth Tracks.
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Traditional Track at Elizabeth Family Medicine
Residents in our Traditional Track are based at Atrium Health Elizabeth Family Medicine; a clinic located in the Elizabeth neighborhood. Learn more
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Urban Track at Biddle Point
Residents in our Urban Track are based at Atrium Health Biddle Point, a clinic located in Biddleville neighborhood. Learn more
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Community Apprenticeship Track at Union Family Practice
Residents in our Community Apprenticeship Track are based at Union Family Practice, a clinic located in Monroe, NC. Learn more
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Atrium Health Union
Residents in the Union Track enjoy rotations and one-on-one learning environments in the second and third years at Atrium Health Union, a 175-bed hospital in Monroe, NC, providing comprehensive emergency services and specialty medical care. The campus offers a variety of medical services, including a day surgery center, cancer treatment center, long-term care facility, behavioral health center, specialty care clinics, a community wellness and outreach program, a women and children’s center, interventional heart program and physician practices. Our hospital has served the Monroe area for more than 15 years. We have worked to add new services and more specialized physicians and programs to meet the growing healthcare needs of our community. Learn more
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Atrium Health Mercy
Residents in the Biddle Point and Elizabeth tracks complete inpatient rotations in second and third years at Atrium Health Mercy, a facility of Carolinas Medical Center. The adult portion of the Family Medicine Inpatient service is located at Atrium Health Mercy, which has treated patients with a combination of human compassion and leading-edge expertise for more than 100 years. As a full-service community hospital, Atrium Health Mercy manages the care of seniors and adult with complex medical conditions, complex foot and ankle surgery, hip and knee surgery, bariatric surgery and women’s pelvic health. Learn more
What Residents are Saying About the Family Medicine Program
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‘’It is my promise to treat my patients as I would want my loved ones to be treated. The Hippocratic Oath that I swore by stated many things but the statement most important to me was, I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.”
Elim Chao, MD (4th Year Chief Resident)
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‘’My biggest goal for each patient encounter is for each patient to feel that they were truly heard and seen during their visit. Medical treatments and goals will always change, but human kindness and empathy will never become obsolete’’.
Katherine Brown (PGY3)
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"Service. Advocacy. Teaching. These are the values that reflect the essence of who I am and what I intend to carry forward as a Family Physician. My aim is to serve my patients well by providing the best care in the clinic as well as advocate for them outside of the clinic. Through compassion and humility, I hope to walk alongside my patients and help them navigate their own understanding of health. For me, my role as a physician is not to simply tell my patients what to do but I like to believe my patients are the driver of the car and I am holding the map as we work together to reach our destination. Overall, my goal is to stay true to my core values as I strive to be a trusted voice in the community."
Emmanuella Mensah (PGY3)
Meet the Faculty
“It is my pleasure to introduce you to our Family Medicine Residency program. Our residents and faculty enjoy collaborative, supportive, and collegial relationships with each other and our peers in other specialties both in the hospital and beyond. We welcome you to visit our ‘family’.”
Shala Sundaram, MD
Residency Program Director
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Rebecca Hayes, MDInterim Chair
With a nationally and internationally renowned team of family medicine physicians who serve as faculty, our residents have access to a breadth of experience and knowledge in the Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency program. View their bios here.
Program Curriculum
The Family Medicine Residency program is designed so each resident assumes increasing patient management responsibilities commensurate with his or her professional development and maturity. In our program, the family medicine resident (while serving on the medical, pediatric, emergency medicine or obstetrical services) enjoys all the privileges and responsibilities of comparable residents in these specialties.
Family Medicine residents receive hands-on experience in various procedures and examinations, including critical care, code blue management and other patient care interactions in our state-of-the-art Simulation Center on campus throughout the 3 years of residency.
Learn moreSalary and Benefits
In addition to the educational and career benefits of the Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency program, residents will receive many financial benefits.
Learn moreApplication Criteria
Applications will be accepted only from participants in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). If you wish to apply to the department’s residency program tracks (Elizabeth, Biddle Point and Union), please indicate within ERAS what tracks you are interested in when you complete your application. Please note that you can apply to all three tracks or any combination that you prefer.
Learn more