UNC Family Medicine

March is #AthleticTrainerMonth as well! We'd like to recognize our talented Certified Athletic Trainers, Natalie Wrenn, MS, LAT, ATC, Michael Yak, ATC, CFo, and Brianne Lawton, MS, LAT, ATC, OPE-C! With their unique skill sets, they play a key role in our outstanding UNC Primary Care Sports Medicine team at The UNC Family Medicine Centers at Durham and Chapel Hill. They collaborate with our Sports Medicine physicians to optimize movement and activity in patients, from high-level athletes to those with chronic medical conditions. UNC Primary Care Sports Medicine is a leading sports medicine facility, renowned for the diagnosis and treatment of sports-related injuries. The center’s team of expert medical specialists use the latest minimally invasive technology and research to provide a range of treatments for the musculoskeletal concerns of athletes and non-athletes of all ages.

March is Social Work Month, and we're proud to highlight our team of social workers who are an integral part of the care we provide! Social workers at UNC Family Medicine are integrated into our primary care clinical service, offering behavioral health resources, coordination of care, connecting patients to services outside of the clinic, and helping to address various social determinants of health to better achieve health equity, benefiting all people. Make sure to thank a social worker! We'd also like to highlight our MedServe fellows and our Masters of Social Work (MSW) intern, who all work closely with our Social Work team and assist in providing many services as well. Please applaud all for their selfless work for the betterment of all patients!

Please welcome our incoming Preventive Medicine Resident Class of 2027! -Nandini Kumar, MD, Family Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine -Pranati Panuganti, MD - Internal Medicine/Pediatrics, UNC Pediatrics -Alexander Young, DO, Internal Medicine, Naval Medical Center of San Diego We're very proud to host the UNC Preventive Medicine Residency. Graduates of the program work within federal, state, and local public health agencies, academic positions in schools of public health and medicine, leadership roles in healthcare settings, or careers in other settings where population health and public health skills are required. In this era of changes in healthcare delivery, new payment models, and innovations that promote health where people live, work, and play, the call for specialists in preventive medicine is important in improving health outcomes for clinical populations and addressing the growing health disparities in the US and globally.

It's #MatchDay2025, and we are EXCITED to announce our newest class of UNC Family Medicine Residents! This talented, diverse group of upcoming residents join us from across the United States. We can’t wait for you to get to know these future leaders in medicine! We look forward to working with and learning from them. Special thanks to our incredible team who worked to make this day happen, including our resident recruitment chairs and our recruitment team, which includes coordinators Ashley Heidinger and Amanda Harvey, MA, and is led by Residency Program Manager Jess Smith, MPM, and Residency Director Mallory McClester Brown, MD!

Join our team! Top-ranked nationally, The UNC Family Medicine Center offers patient-centered care, conducts groundbreaking research, cares for communities, and trains the brightest young doctors and primary care providers.?We offer comprehensive care for physical health, emotional well-being, nutrition, acute needs, and sports medicine.?We provide full-spectrum patient care for all ages, including maternity services.?We are proud to serve our amazing, diverse UNC community and ALL the people of North Carolina! https://lnkd.in/ekjPfbTu

The NC Formerly Incarcerated Transitions (NC FIT) Program has been awarded the 2025 Reentry Outreach Excellence in Service Award from OurJourney, an organization that also supports justice-involved individuals. Nominees for this award are North Carolina-based organizations that have dedicated themselves to supporting men and women returning to our communities after incarceration. NC FIT Program was one of four organizations nominated. Pictured (L/R): Frankie Roberts, CEO of LINC Inc.; Shawn Baker, CHW, Shatocka Carlton, CHW; Tommy Green, CHW; and Sheila Bonilla, CHW. NC FIT was launched in the department in 2019 by Evan Ashkin, MD, and will soon be expanding into 3 new counties, with Wilson, Forsyth, and Rockingham joining Durham, Orange, Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Beaufort, Buncombe, and New Hanover Counties. NC FIT now supports 20 Community Health Worker (CHW) positions and operates a variety of programs focusing on people with serious mental illness (FIT Wellness); providing Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) prior to release and direct connection to services upon release (FIT Recovery); and lead the North Carolina Technical Assistance Center (NC-TAC), a statewide technical assistance team focused on reentry, harm reduction, jail-based MOUD and law enforcement diversion/deflection. About OurJourney:? "OurJourney is a nonprofit organization created by a group of former North Carolina prisoners who met behind the razor wire, reconnected in the free world and determined together to do more than just celebrate their individual freedom. From reentry kits to essential services, from resource guides to peer-to-peer mentoring, from one side of North Carolina to the other, OurJourney is a new approach to freedom, where being released from prison isn't just an occasion to anticipate, but also a journey to join." Learn more: ourjourney2gether.com/ go.unc.edu/ncfit

UNC Family Medicine was proud to be an exhibitor at the 46th annual UNC Minority Health Conference this past Friday. We had many great conversations with students, peers, and colleagues working towards health equity and a more representative workforce that better reflects the population of patients we serve in North Carolina and beyond. We were happy to table beside our colleagues at Piedmont Health Services Inc, a local Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) where many of our faculty work and where we train our FQHC Track residents. Kudos to the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health for continuing to put on this important event! Pictured: LeRon Jackson, MD, MPH, and Patrick Carlsen Smith, MD, MPH

Today, March 4, is International Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Awareness Day. From Assistant Professor Nadja Vielot, PhD, MSPH,? "HPV is a common virus that can cause six types of cancer, and over 37,000 people get HPV cancers in the United States every year. HPV vaccination can prevent more than 90% of HPV cancers when boys and girls receive the 2-dose HPV vaccination series prior to their 13th birthday. This cancer-preventing vaccine provides safe, effective, and long-lasting protection." Vielot is an epidemiologist with research interests in infectious diseases, vaccine-preventable diseases, and global health. She has received grants to study how to help improve HPV vaccination uptake by improving provider communication with vaccine-hesitant individuals, and is currently working on a study to help reduce the drastic urban-rural disparities in HPV cancer incidence and mortality.

As the calendar approaches the end of Black History Month, we are proud to feature a "celebration" by Dr. Rikhel Johnson, a 2nd year UNC Family Medicine resident who sees patients at our partner Piedmont Health Services' Prospect Hill Community Health Center. What this month stands for is, of course, not contained to only a month, so Dr. Johnson has added Black-owned businesses you can support throughout the year (see link below)! It is important to note that numerous studies have shown stark health disparities continue for Black Americans (see comments for a link to more), who are 30 percent more likely than whites to die prematurely from heart disease, men who are twice as likely as whites to die prematurely from stroke, women whose maternal mortality rate is 2.6 times higher than their white counterparts; and more. We share this to acknowledge that it is of the utmost importance to recognize these disparities and strive to make healthcare work better for all people. go.unc.edu/bhm-celebration

??UPDATE for Friday?? Due to the potential for icy roads in the early morning, The UNC Family Medicine Centers at Chapel Hill (along with Urgent Care), Carraway Village, Durham, and South Durham will delay opening until 9:00AM on Friday, February 21st. Hopefully, this will be the last update this go around!