The Primary Care Track at UVM was established in 1978 and provides excellent training to prepare residents for careers in primary care. There are 3 spots per year in this track, and it has its own NRMP number in the match. Participation in the primary care track offers more training in the fundamentals of outpatient medicine and advanced concepts in primary care practice. Residents in the primary care track have 6-8 additional weeks of ambulatory electives and clinic time per year. In addition, the group participates in a monthly conference with food provided to discuss important topics in primary care (chosen by the residents). The primary care track residents also take part in quarterly lunch meetings to discuss changes and improvements that should occur in the clinic. The primary care track residents are primarily scheduled to be in the same clinic group which allows for easier scheduling of special primary care activities and educational sessions. Ample opportunities exist for research, quality improvement projects, population health, addiction medicine and teaching all under the supervision of faculty experts in these domains.
Each year, the primary care track residents and primary care track faculty gather for a day at a faculty member’s home or a local venue for a daylong retreat. Senior level primary care residents develop the agenda with the assistance of the faculty and prior topics have included updates in primary care medicine, career options in primary care in addition to time for wellness.
Our residents have engaged in primary care research over the years and have presented their work at local, regional and national meetings.
University of Vermont Medical Center
HIV Track
The University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) launched, in the Fall of 2024, is a pilot HIV primary care track available within the three-year Internal Medicine Residency Program. Outside of the standard Internal Medicine training, residents follow a dedicated panel of patients living with HIV and patients eligible for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) with the goal of addressing their primary HIV care and sexual health needs respectively. The trainee works with faculty members who are experts in HIV medicine and primary care at various sites including but not limited to the Burlington and Rutland Ryan White HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Care Clinics.
Elements of the program include becoming fluent in the classes of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for newly diagnosed patients and tailoring complex regimens for patients with longstanding HIV. HIV track residents also learn the complexities of metabolic syndromes and chronic disease challenges that occur alongside HIV in an aging population. Finally, there is an expectation for residents to pursue an HIV specific research project with the goal of presenting at academic venues and conferences.
Primary Care Track Director
Elizabeth (Beth) Wahlberg, MD, is originally from Montana and studied Chemistry and Biology as a dual major at Cornell University before completing medical school at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She then made the journey to Vermont for Primary Care Internal Medicine residency training followed by serving as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Vermont Medical Center. After her chief year, Dr. Wahlberg joined the faculty at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine in 2020.
Dr. Wahlberg’s passion for primary care includes (but is not limited to) a love of developing long-lasting relationships with her patients, allowing her to help them navigate the complexities of chronic disease management and preventive care. She is passionate about education, which includes teaching patients in the office, as well as medical students and resident physicians in the clinical setting. Dr. Wahlberg became a preceptor in the resident clinic in 2019, served as a resident clinic firm leader starting in 2023 and became the Primary Care Track Director in July of 2025. She has led the residency clinic panel management and population health curriculum since 2019, with other academic interests including quality improvement and patient safety. Outside of work, her primary time commitment is enjoying wrangling her two young daughters! When the working toddler-parent life allows, she enjoys biking, running, hiking, skiing, baking, and crocheting.
Resident Clinic Director
Richard Pinckney, MD, MPH, completed his medicine residency at UVM in 1994, his MPH at Harvard in 2000, and his General Internal Medicine Fellowship at UVM in 2001.
Over the course of his career, he has enjoyed doing research and quality improvement, but teaching and patient care have been his career long passions.
He has played a leadership role in the resident clinic for 15 years. His clinical and teaching interests include evidence-based medicine, mind-body medicine, ADHD, chronic pain, and health behavior change. Outside of the clinic he will likely be found on the disc golf course in the summer or cross-country skiing in the winter. In addition to teaching his cat Baloo tricks, he also enjoys cooking and eating great food for fun and health.
Primary Care Weeks
In addition to the 10 ambulatory primary care weeks each year allowed for by the 4+1 schedule, each primary care resident will spend a number of additional weeks in their continuity clinic. The primary care week schedule is designed individually with each resident to meet his/her career needs. Extra primary care weeks can include extra time in the clinic, teaching in the clinic and self-directed learning projects. In addition, we offer a number of developed primary care week electives that residents can choose from over the three-year program. A unique feature of our program is that primary care residents and many categorical residents prescribe buprenorphine/naloxone to care for a small number of patients with opioid use disorder. Formal didactic training on prescribing buprenorphine/naloxone is part of the curriculum.
Primary Care Track – Electives
- Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
- Outpatient Orthopedics
- Women’s Health
- Homeless Medicine
- Migrant Health Care and Refugee Medicine
- Introduction to Health Care Communication
- Psychology in Primary Care
- Population Health and Panel Management
- Outpatient Palliative Care
- Addiction Medicine
- Outpatient Subspecialty Clinic
- Comprehensive Pain Management
- Clinical Compassion
- Rural Primary Care
- Primary Care Research
- Understanding Coding and Billing
- Design Your Own Elective