Family Medicine Interest Group (UCONN)

The Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) is a national organization designed to allow students from all years to gain an increased understanding of the full spectrum of career opportunities available to family physicians. Meetings are held monthly and are student organized. Their focus is on sharing skills, knowledge and excitement about the field of Family Medicine.

Activities range from "Hands-on Night" during which students experience and practice typical skills performed by family physicians such as colposcopy, suturing, sigmoidoscopy and others, to seminars about complementary medicine and obstetrics in Family Medicine. All students are encouraged to attend regardless of career interest. Some meetings are held in conjunction with the Yale Family Medicine Interest Group, and may take place at a more central location.

Support for the Family Medicine Interest Group comes in part from the Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians.

Over the past couple of years, students have made some of the following comments about the exciting topics covered during FMIG meetings:

Hands-On Nights: "'I watched a circumcision, I peered into somebody's ear, I learned how to take a blood pressure reading, I sutured a three-inch incisions!' In a pig's ear, maybe, but it'll scratch that clinical itch you've had since you got your acceptance letter and bought that stethoscope!"
Psychiatry Night at the Movies: "As a family physician you'll run into your share of oddball characters. It turns out that Hollywood's depiction of many psychiatric symptoms isn't far from accurate! Clips from movies accompany descriptions of cases you're likely to see."
Giving Birth to Baby: "'I delivered my first baby as a first-year!' It's only model Dana, but still, some family physicians say this is what kept them from a life of laboratory research."
Alternative Medicine: "Many of your patients will use it, even if they don't admit it to you. So what's the scoop? Does homeopathy work? Can we use natural herbs to treat clinical symptoms? Is there any merit to incorporating the 'holistic' approach into your own bedside manner? A cornucopia of information they won't tell you in lecture!"
Addiction/Drugs: "They say that it's possible to spot evidence of six different types
Death and Dying: "Trained always to offer hope and action, physicians are often at a loss when confronted with the inevitable. But it is here that bedside manner is most crucial"
Strolling Through the Match: "How can I be expected to stroll when I don't even know where I am going or how to get there?" What lies ahead with residency applications? Reports from the front - from those who were thrust headlong into ... the Match!

Meetings/Seminars will take place monthly, usually at 6:30 p.m. in the Conference Room at the Asylum Hill Family Practice Center (our residency site) at 99 Woodland Street, Hartford. Dinner is always provided. (A full meeting schedule will be available at a later date.)

Family Medicine Scholars Advisor: Mary P. Guerrera, MD

Family Medicine Interest Group Student Leaders:
John Carbone This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Faith Knapp This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For additional information or to be added to our mailing list for meeting announcements, please contact:

Kelly Hookstadt, UConn School of Medicine
Department of Family Medicine, 860-714-6529
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Diane Martin, UConn School of Medicine
Department of Family Medicine, 860-679-2928
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