The Obstetrics Fellowship, which is part of The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, is the oldest such training program in the United States. Dr. Paul Mozley, former professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the College of Community Health Sciences, which operates the residency, created the fellowship in 1986 to address the overwhelming need for obstetrics care in rural and remote areas of Alabama. Since then, many obstetrics fellowship programs across the United States have been modeled after Mozley’s original design.
The goal of the Obstetrics Fellowship is to educate and train family medicine physicians to provide obstetrical care to women in rural and underserved areas with the goal of improving overall maternal and perinatal health outcomes.
The Obstetrics Fellowship is a year-long training program for family medicine physicians that is supervised by full-time faculty members certified in both obstetrics and gynecology and family medicine-obstetrics. Fellows receive training in operative vaginal deliveries, Cesarean sections, dilation and curettage, ultrasound, sterilization techniques, LARC procedures, colposcopy, LEEP and endometrial biopsies.
The Obstetrics Fellowship seeks to recruit family medicine physician applicants who will further the program’s mission of providing and placing well-trained physicians in rural communities to provide family medicine care with obstetrics services.
Fellowship Goals
- Provide an additional year of intensive training in high-risk surgical obstetrics to family physicians who have completed an ACGME accredited family medicine residency.
- Provide robust surgical training, including Cesarean sections, tubal ligations, dilation and curettage, operative vaginal deliveries, perineal laceration repairs and circumcisions.
- Promote clinical competency in high-risk obstetrics in inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Passage of the Family Medicine Obstetrics Board Certification Exam with completion of certification by sitting for the oral exam after graduation.
The training program is recognized by the Board of Certification in Family Medicine Obstetrics (BCFMO) and meets all requirements for accreditation.