Richard Streiffer, MD

Richard Streiffer, MD — Professor

Richard H. Streiffer, MD, is Professor of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine and previously served as dean of the College from 2012-2018. A native of New Orleans, Streiffer earned an undergraduate degree in Math from Tulane University, his medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, and completed his Family Medicine Residency at The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, which is operated by the College. After several years in rural practice in Mississippi and serving as a preceptor for medical students, he began an academic career at the University of Mississippi in 1984. He subsequently served as Director of the Mercy Family Medicine Residency in Denver, Colorado; as Director of Predoctoral Education in Family Medicine at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, where he started the first required Family Medicine Clerkship in Louisiana; and as founding Director of the Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency, the first community-based training program in Louisiana. He was recruited back to New Orleans in 1998 to found the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine and served for 12 years as chair of that department, providing oversight to development of its clinical practice, student teaching programs and residency affiliations.

Over the course of his career, Streiffer has been project director on federal training grants with a focus on primary care education and development of a rural physician workforce. He founded the Tulane Rural Medical Education Program (TRuMEd), a program to selectively admit rural students to Tulane University with a commitment to future rural practice, and created the Tulane Rural Immersion Program (TRIP), a novel nine-month rural longitudinal integrated clerkship, with the support of a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. He also received a $1 million Health Resources and Services Administration grant to oversee the development of a medical home curriculum within the required Family Medicine Clerkship at Tulane University School of Medicine.

He has been active in leadership and committee roles at the national and state levels in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, serving as STFM’s secretary-treasurer from 2010-2012, and in the American and Louisiana Academies of Family Physicians, including serving as president of the LAFP from 2003-2004. He was appointed to the Louisiana Health Works Commission by former Louisiana Gov.  Bobby Jindal in 2009, and served as co-chair of the Governor’s Interagency Task Force on the Future of Family Medicine in Louisiana from 2004-2012. In 2006-2007, he spent a sabbatical year working with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals on Graduate Medical Education and Primary Care Workforce issues in the context of the post-Katrina Health Care Redesign Initiative.

Streiffer has been recognized during his career with several teaching awards, including the Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement from The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences. In 2011, he received two prestigious teaching awards from Tulane University: the Teaching Scholar Award from Tulane’s School of Medicine and the President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional School Teaching, a university-wide award given to Tulane faculty members who have a sustained a compelling record of excellence in teaching and learning and an ongoing commitment to educational excellence.

Streiffer is board certified in Family Medicine and holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Geriatrics.

(205) 348-1288  rhstreiffer@ua.edu