Welcome to the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine. To our students, residents, fellows, patients, faculty, staff and community partners – thank you for visiting.
This is a good time to get to know our department. We are growing with a clear purpose: To improve patient care and the patient experience, strengthen education and scholarship, and respond to the healthcare needs of West Alabama. Our division structure connects clinical practice with learning and research. The direction I want us to pursue includes stronger access to care, support for our faculty and staff, and responsible use of data and artificial intelligence.
If you are a patient, I want you to know that our faculty are the ones who care for our patients in clinics and hospitals and who teach the next generation of clinicians. Listening, explaining clearly and helping you move between care settings should be central to your experience. We want our clinical decisions and our improvement work to reflect what matters to you and your family.
If you are a student, resident, fellow or physician considering a career here, look closely at what our faculty do. Their work spans primary care, maternity care, sports medicine, care for older adults, hospital medicine and clinical procedures. You will learn through supervised practice, thoughtful feedback and opportunity to ask questions that can easily become scholarship. Dr. Russ directs our Family Medicine Residency. As department chair, I support the clinical, education, research and service missions that connect our practice areas.
If you are a colleague or potential partner, you will see a department committed to continuously examining its work. We use and share data we gather about access, patient experience, education outcomes and graduate practice locations to guide improvement. The College’s Education Report for 2025 shows that 47% of our family medicine residency graduates practice in Alabama. Clearly defined measures help us understand our responsibilities and show us where further work is needed.
Rural is in our name and at the heart of what we do. Our rural medicine education pathways guide learners to careers serving Alabama’s rural communities.We intend to further strengthen these connections while developing a clinical research portfolio and evaluating new tools, including AI, in alignment with high standards for patient privacy, human oversight and professional accountability.
I invite you to explore our department’s divisions, meet our faculty and learn about our clinical, educational and scholarly work. Our patients, learners and partners play an important role in the future of FIRM. Thank you for your interest in improving health across West Alabama and beyond.
Tamer Elsayed, MD, MSc, FAAFP
Chair, Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine