About Us Overview
Family Medicine (FM) is defined as “comprehensive medical care with an emphasis on caring for all members of the family.” FM builds upon a core of knowledge derived from multiple disciplines. The Department of Family Medicine (DFM), within the Faculty of Medicine at uOttawa, is a bilingual academic department that exists to meet the demand of an integrated multi-disciplinary Primary Health Care (PHC) system through clinical care, education and research. The Department has undergone significant expansion in the last several years in response to increasing demand for physicians in the field of FM.
Supported by over 30 Geographic Full-Time (GFT) faculty and 260 Voluntary Part-Time (VPT) teachers, the Department has an exceptionally strong postgraduate program that includes opportunities for residents to train in the French language, through our Montfort Unit, in numerous urban and rural community sites and at four large FM teaching centres affiliated with the Ottawa Hospital. Rural programs have been developed and are being implemented in Pembroke and Winchester, and other rural areas are being considered for training. The postgraduate program is undergoing substantial expansion and clinician educators are being actively recruited. The DFM fosters educational opportunities in First Nations health care with the government of Nunavut and opportunities in International Health through the hard work of a flourishing Global Medicine Interest Group.
The DFM has an active commitment to the undergraduate medical education curriculum featuring a six week 3rd year clerkship rotation. Increased opportunities for medical students to participate in first and second year FM placements are currently being implemented.
The C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Center (CTLC) is the research arm of the Department of Family Medicine and one of the three pillars of the Bruyère Research Institute (BRI). CTLC is a highly productive, stimulating primary health care research centre composed of world-class researchers in multiple disciplines who work alongside trainees. The CTLC’s investigators and trainees include medical physicians, pharmacists, epidemiologists, health economists, and doctoral specialists in public health, family medicine, and population health. In addition to their roles with the CTLC, these investigators are also professors at the University of Ottawa, practicing medical professionals, and serve on a number of different policy and advisory committees. This highly collaborative team creates a rich environment that fosters creativity.
CTLC demonstrates both scientific depth and a breadth of reach of knowledge across a wide range of primary health care content areas. The CTLC scientists consistently show that they can work with stakeholders of all kinds and at all levels in the health system to generate high quality research data that is relevant regionally, nationally, and internationally. The applicants have a proven track record (documented by multiple ministry reports, policy advisory roles, and changes to clinical practice) in delivering high quality research and disseminating it via publication and national and international presentations. In the last five years, CTLC scientists have been on grants for over $19 M with $7.8 M of this as a PI, resulting in 154 publications, 82 of them with a CTLC Scientist as a lead author. Respected for its rigorous research and methods, CTLC informs policy makers, family care practices and academics on how best to deliver effective, efficient and equitable primary health care and thus drive progress in this field.
