About Us

Family and Community Medicine

The Department of Family and Community Medicine at Providence Health Care has a long and rich history of patient care, community service, Family Medicine Resident education, research, and advocacy. With approximately 300 members, it is the natural Departmental locus for family doctors practicing in downtown and East Vancouver. It has cultivated close linkages with other Vancouver Family Practice Departments, and with the Vancouver Coastal Health Region, and has been the stimulus or vehicle for many innovations in health care delivery in hospital, the community, and residential care.

Long the largest urban UBC Family Practice Residency training site, it also now houses the International Medical Graduate UBC Family Practice Residency Program.

Member practices encompass a broad range of medical care, including traditional family practice, palliative care, residential care, HIV/AIDs care, addiction medicine, obstetrics, care of the elderly, shared mental health care, hospital care, sports medicine, and others. At our community hospital site (Mt. St. Joseph Hospital) a patient population characterized by cultural and ethnic diversity serves to influence the model of medical care.

For more than 60 years our Department has organized the annual "St. Paul's Hospital CME Conference for Primary Physicians", which has grown into one of the premier CME events in Canada, with registration last year exceeding 1,500. Proceeds from this Conference are utilized to support member and Resident education and research.

The longevity and successes of our Department are attributable to the ongoing commitment of our individual members, and their resolve to maintain a strong family practice culture in a large and often specialty-focused urban environment.