Primary Care Track

PC Garden Club

Read More: Why should I apply to an Internal Medicine Primary Care Track?

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 it’s 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 dinner provided to discuss important topics in primary care (chosen by the residents) and also to discuss changes and improvements that should occur in the clinic. The primary care track residents are 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. 

Resident Clinic Co-Director and Director of the Primary Care Track

Pinckney

Dr. Richard Pinckney 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.  

Resident Clinic Co-Director

Emily Strout

Dr. Emily Hadley Strout (Dr. Strout) graduated from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed her primary care internal medicine residency at the University of Vermont Medicine Center.  She joined as faculty after residency in 2019.  While she enjoys inpatient medicine, her passion lies in primary care where she fosters enduring patient relationships over the long term. She is passionate about medical education, especially curricular development, and is always looking for ways to improve the resident learning experience. Additional interests include quality improvement, caring for the geriatric population, panel management/population health, proficiency in utilizing electronic health record tools, and optimizing efficiency while maintaining high-quality care. She has served as the regional SGIM scientific chair and is a master teacher in the teaching academy. She prides herself on her work ethic but also strongly believes in work-life balance and values spending time with her husband, daughter, family, and friends. She enjoys good food, trying new activities, painting, mountain biking, skiing, and gaming. She loves all animals and when she retires, she someday hopes to have a small farm/animal sanctuary.

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

  1. Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
  2. Outpatient Orthopedics
  3. Women’s Health
  4. Homeless Medicine
  5. Migrant Health Care and Refugee Medicine
  6. Introduction to Health Care Communication
  7. Psychology in Primary Care
  8. Population Health and Panel Management
  9. Outpatient Palliative Care
  10. Addiction Medicine 
  11. Outpatient Subspecialty Clinic  
  12. Comprehensive Pain Management
  13. Clinical Compassion
  14. Rural Primary Care 
  15. Primary Care Research
  16. Understanding Coding and Billing
  17. Design Your Own Elective