The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program

We offer a broad-based curriculum focused on developing family medicine physicians to provide comprehensive, compassionate, and patient-centered care for patients of all ages. Through our program, qualified and dedicated physicians gain the skills and experience necessary to be among the best in their fields. They are well prepared to excel in a variety of practice settings and to assume leadership roles in today’s changing healthcare delivery system.

Program Highlights

  • One of the nation’s oldest and largest family medicine residencies with a total of 48 positions (16-16-16).
  • Unopposed program with no competing residencies, providing ample opportunity for residents to directly care for patients and develop procedural skills.
  • 100% passage rate on board exams.
  • A program structure that emphasizes individualized instruction.
  • A large, highly skilled and dedicated faculty in the core disciplines, with assistance from local physicians.
  • 583-bed DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa (the referral hospital for West Alabama), located across the street from the residency, minimizing resident travel.
  • A state-of-the-art Family Medicine Center across the street from the hospital, certified as a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home, as well as community clinics in nearby Northport and Demopolis, Alabama.
  • Proven track record of quality graduates who have entered urban, rural and academic settings.
  • 1 in 7 family physicians practicing in Alabama are graduates of the program.
  • More than 50 residency graduates are members of the DCH Regional Medical Center physician staff.
  • Program located on the main campus of The University of Alabama home of the Crimson Tide football team.

Our History

1972 The College of Community Health Sciences is founded at The University of Alabama in response to the country’s acute need for more physicians, particularly in small towns and rural communities. Dr. William R. Willard, a nationally recognized leader in community and family practice and credited with developing the specialty of family medicine, is hired as dean. 
1974 The College launches the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency and recruits its first resident.
1975 The College’s first outpatient clinic, a 30,000-square-foot, multi-specialty community practice, opens, forming the base of the College’s clinical teaching program. The opening of the Family Practice Center is attended by Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1976 The first class of the University of Alabama School of Medicine students who completed their clinical education at the College (third and fourth years) graduate.
1976 Dr. William deShazo is recruited as the first long-term residency director. deShazo, head team physician for UA’s football team and personal physician to head football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, introduces a sports medicine rotation into the residency curriculum.
1982 College expands Family Practice Center and renames it Capstone Medical Center, adding more than 7,000 square feet of clinical space with new exam rooms, ob/gyn suite, minor surgery and procedures, and new waiting rooms.
1993 Number of patients at Capstone Medical Center grows to 13,800 and they make 70,000 office visits per year.
1996 College grows to 35 full-time faculty, 46 part-time faculty and 95 staff members, including the nursing staff at Capstone Medical Center.
2001 College creates the Institute for Rural Health Research to research health concerns of Alabama’s rural citizens.
2002 Introduction of electronic medical record at Capstone Medical Center.
2004 A new building housing the College, its residency and outpatient clinic opens. The outpatient clinic is renamed University Medical Center and soon is the largest, multi-specialty community clinic in West Alabama.
2012 The Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency is granted nine additional slots and becomes one of the largest family medicine residencies in the United States with a total of 48 slots (16-16-16)
2015 College opens a family medicine and obstetrics practice in Northport, Alabama. 
2017 College opens a family medicine and prenatal care practice in Demopolis, Alabama. College grows to 379 employees, including 64 faculty, and its clinical enterprise records more than 145,000 patient visits. University Medical Center Family Medicine and Pediatric clinics certified as Patient-Centered Medical Home.
2020 The residency is renamed The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program.
2024 Nearly 600 physicians have graduated from The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program since its founding.