Dr. Tamer Elsayed, director of The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, has been appointed chair of the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine (FIRM) at UA’s College of Community Health Sciences.
Elsayed’s appointment, which takes effect Aug. 15, follows “a rigorous national search,” said CCHS Dean Dr. Richard Friend.
“Dr. Elsayed is a distinguished physician leader and educator with more than a decade of service to our institution,” Friend said. “Since joining the College in 2014, he has advanced through key academic and administrative roles, including assistant and associate professor, residency director and, most recently, interim chair (of FIRM) since 2023. He brings a wealth of experience in health-care administration, clinical operations, medical education and population health.”
As FIRM interim chair, Elsayed led strategic and operational oversight of the College’s largest multi-disciplinary department, overseeing more than 100 faculty, staff and resident physicians. As residency director, he has guided the program through curricular redesigns, and the residency has maintained a 100% board passage rate for the past five years.
“More than half of residency graduates during his tenure have remained in Alabama to practice, contributing significantly to the state’s primary-care workforce,” Friend said.
He said Elsayed will continue as director of the residency, which is operated by CCHS. Friend said the College plans to conduct a search for a new residency director in the near future.
Elsayed has secured more than $3 million in external funding as principal or co-investigator on multiple grants, including projects focused on maternal health disparities, hypertension management in African American males and integrated residency training. He has been a speaker at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar and as part of the Harvard Business School Leadership Program.
Elsayed has participated in fellowships through the National Institute for Program Director Development and the University of North Carolina Faculty Development Institute. He has had executive training through Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. He serves on institutional and national committees, including the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council.
Elsayed earned a bachelor’s degree in medicine and a master’s degree of internal medicine from the Medical School, Cairo University, Egypt, where he graduated with honors. He also received an award of excellence from the Kuwait Ministry of Health.
He completed his residency training at the UA Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, where he received the outstanding research award for an influenza vaccine acceptance study.
Elsayed is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Medical Association.