June 28, 2023
Residents and Fellows celebrated at graduation ceremony
Twenty-six physicians were honored June 25, 2023, at the 48th annual graduation ceremony of The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program and Fellowships. The event was held at UA’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The College of Community Health Sciences provides graduate and post-graduate medical education through both the three-year Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency and year-long fellowships for family medicine physicians seeking additional training in behavioral health, emergency medicine geriatrics, hospital medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, rural public psychiatry and sports medicine.
The 16 graduating residents and 10 fellows will begin their practices in Alabama and in other states and countries, or enter fellowship programs.
“This is a very special class, and we are very proud of their accomplishments,” Dr. Tamer Elsayed, director of the Residency and associate professor in the Department of Family, Internal and Rural Medicine at CCHS, said in welcoming remarks. “You all strived and did very well, becoming leaders. You took care of patients at the hospital and the clinics. We accomplished a lot together. “
Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, also spoke about how proud he was of the graduating residents and fellows. “I had the responsibility of ensuring the (UA) campus was open during the (COVID-19) pandemic and my secret weapon was always the residents,” he said. “Our residents did a great job adapting and taking care of each and every one of our patients. They were kind and took care of each other.”
The guest speaker at the graduation ceremony was Dr. Alan Blum, the College’s Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine and founding director of the UA Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
“Today is an opportunity to not just congratulate you, but to thank you” for being on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blum said.
He also had some advice for the graduating residents and fellows. “Keep things in perspective and keep a sense of humor. It’s the relationships that you cultivate with patients that are most meaningful in your medical journey and your medical practice,” Blum said. “Keep up your non-medical education (art, music, poetry, etc.). You’re about to become even better family medicine physicians than you already were. It’s been an honor to work with you.”
