Why primary care medicine?
The Illinois RMED program is especially interested in training primary care doctors because these professionals are able to care for an entire community, from infants to the elderly, men and women. While our program is opened to students interested in the primary care specialties, (family medicine, general internal medicine, pediactics and medicine/pediatrics) much of the focus of the RMED training is on family medicine principles, and most of our students choose family medicine as their specialty. Family medicine cares for the family as a unit, rather than just the individual. Also, studies have shown that a community of 2,500 can support a family physician, but it takes a much larger community to support other specialists. For instance, it takes a community of at least 5,500 to support an internist, 7,500 to support a pediatrician. Many Illinois communities are very small, and family docs make the most sense. Family physicians are also trained to provide patient education to keep the
