INTRODUCTION TO FIRM
Care, learning and community.
The Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine (FIRM) is the largest clinical and academic department in the College of Community Health Sciences at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Its work spans eight primary care clinics and an academic hospital medicine service. More than 30 physicians, scientists and clinicians form the department’s core team, within a broader care team of more than 100 providers that includes faculty, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and dietitians.
FIRM connects care for people in Tuscaloosa and surrounding rural and urban communities with the education of medical students, residents and fellows. Faculty provide primary and preventive care, maternity care, chronic disease and obesity management, nutrition and lifestyle medicine, geriatrics, sports medicine and hospital care. Through accessible services, clear communication and continuity, the department aims to improve patient care, the patient experience and health across West Alabama.
The department houses The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, seven post-residency fellowships, the Family Medicine and Internal Medicine medical student clerkships and the College’s Rural Programs. Faculty teach students from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine in Birmingham in our role as the school’s Tuscaloosa Regional Campus and supervise residents and fellows in clinics and hospitals. Rural educational pathways and community service connect this training with Alabama’s healthcare needs.
Faculty research interests bring clinical medicine together with hypertension and population health, maternal health, musculoskeletal care, nutrition, rural health, medical education and quality improvement. Work on data and responsible artificial intelligence explores how new tools can support safer care, learning and clinical operations. These interests inform FIRM’s future direction: Improving care where it is delivered and preparing clinicians to serve their communities.
Seven divisions connect the department’s clinical, educational, rural and scholarly work. The Research Division is marked Coming Soon while its scope is reviewed. Explore our divisions and programs.
MISSION AND VISION
Our purpose and direction.
Our mission
The Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine works to improve and promote the health of individuals and communities in rural Alabama and the Southeast through leadership in medical education, primary care and population health; the provision of high-quality, accessible healthcare services; and research and scholarship.
This mission reflects the College of Community Health Sciences’s (CCHS) rural health charge.
Our vision
By 2031, the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine will be recognized as a national model for community-engaged academic primary care: A department whose graduates practice where they are needed most, whose clinics set the standard for increased access and a positive patient experience in West Alabama, whose research changes practice in rural health, and whose responsible use of data and artificial intelligence makes care safer and clinics’ work sustainable.
SEVEN CORE VALUES
How we put purpose into practice.
FIRM’s proposed values build on the seven core values of CCHS: integrity, social accountability, learning, innovation, patient-centeredness, transparency and interprofessional collaboration. The departmental statements below describe those commitments.
Patients first
Every decision about schedules, space, staffing and technology starts with the patient care experience.
Teach what we practice
Our faculty see patients, deliver babies, staff hospital services and cover sports sidelines at UA.
Rural by design
Rural is in our name. We intentionally build clinics, education pipelines and training tracks as a priority not an afterthought.
Measure and publish
We track and publish outcomes, board performance, accreditation, the patient experience and where our graduates practice.
Innovate responsibly
We adopt new tools, including artificial intelligence, with governance, human oversite and clear success criteria.
Work as one team
Physicians, advance practice clinicians, nurses, dietitians, social workers, behavioral health professionals and staff care for patients as a team.
Integrity and respect
We hold ourselves to high professional standards in how we care treat our patients, learners and colleagues.