Chair's Welcome
Welcome to the UCLA Department of Family Medicine!
The main missions of the Department of Family Medicine are outstanding patient care, education, research discovery, and community engagement to improve the health of patients and families in our communities.
The Department of Family Medicine takes great pride in providing patients with comprehensive and personalized care to improve their health and wellbeing. Our faculty practice incorporates innovative models of primary care delivered with a multidisciplinary team that includes pharmacists, behavioral and mental health clinicians, and physicians with expertise in addiction medicine. The department runs two practices, one UCLA Health Family Health Center in Santa Monica and a second Mid Valley Family Medicine Clinic in partnership with Los Angeles County, located in the San Fernando Valley. Our family physicians have expertise in areas that include sports medicine, addiction and behavioral medicine, palliative care, and healthcare for those unhoused.
Our family medicine residency program provides hospital care at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Olive-View UCLA Medical Center. The residency and fellowship programs prepare physicians to provide excellent patient care to a multicultural and diverse society and to deliver care through a different lens that accounts for a patient’s family, community, and broader environment and social conditions. Our nationally recognized sports medicine team of physicians have forged strong partnerships with the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and UCLA Athletics.
Our research program consistently ranks in the top ten family medicine departments in NIH funding, and we lead the way to transform the provision of primary care, primary care addiction medicine, reduce healthcare disparities, and novel models to bolster our primary care healthcare workforce.
Clinical care is only one part of the complicated solution to improving the health of families and communities in Los Angeles and we therefore value equitable community engagement and partnerships. The department has a proud history of community engagement and our diverse faculty champion innovative mentoring programs in local public high schools, and provide supervision at community health fairs and the UCLA student-run homeless clinics. We have an unwavering commitment to providing high quality care to under-resourced communities through our unique partnership with the Los Angeles County Health Agency. As a department, we seek progress in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, and we pledge to continue our path towards health equity for all, which is part of our social contract and mission as a department of family medicine.
Whether you are a patient seeking excellent care, a medical student, or member of our community, I invite you to learn more about our inspiring faculty and our vibrant and diverse UCLA Department of Family Medicine.
Dr. Gerardo Moreno elected to National Academy of Medicine
Dr. Gerardo Moreno, chair of the UCLA Department of Family Medicine and professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
The distinction is among the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. New members are elected by their peers through a process that recognizes those who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement.