Conferences and Training

Family Medicine conferences are held several days a week at lunchtime, and are supplemented by monthly block conference mornings covering core Family Medicine clinical topics, including:

• Conferences with patient participants; including monthly adult psychiatry conferences
• Weekly OB/GYN conferences
• Monthly evidence-based medicine conference
• Monthly workshops in gynecologic procedures, casting and splinting, suturing, other office-based procedures, and using state-of-the-art training models
• Multiple sessions on pain medicine and palliative care
• Monthly health systems management conference
• Monthly osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) workshop
• Monthly physical medicine and rehabilitation conference

Other lunchtime activities include the Balint Group; resident, faculty and office management meetings; and other learning and supportive activities.

Patient Turnover
Family Medicine faculty and residents meet each weekday morning to discuss daily progress of inpatients, exchange information and develop consensus on the clinical care of each inpatient. At each patient turnover, there is a short lecture covering inpatient and Family Medicine issues raised in previous reports and precepting.

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)
EBM training begins in the first year, with one-on-one education in search strategies on evidence-based websites; preparation for and presentation at the program’s monthly EBM conference; and ongoing involvement in raising and answering clinical questions using EBM resources during precepting, patient turnover and the monthly conference.

Research is an important element of medical education. Each resident is required to develop a scholarly project during their training. Residents may choose to focus on EBM and produce clinical inquiries or help-desk answers for the Family Practice Inquires Network - a national, not-for-profit organization - in fulfillment of the research requirement. Attendance at the monthly EBM conference and other teaching programs acquaints residents with the EBM process, and faculty mentorship is provided. Alternatively, the resident may pursue another type of project, with Family Medicine faculty or with a non-Family Medicine medical specialist’s supervision. Help with data collection, analysis and Institutional Review Board (IRB) review are available.

Residents and faculty may present their work at the annual Atlantic Health Research Day, a juried competition. Should your research be accepted for presentation at a regional or national conference, the residency program will fund your travel.

International Experience
International medical activities are highly valued by the residency program. Through an international health experience (arranged either by the resident or chosen from a list of pre-established opportunities) the resident has an opportunity to learn about geographically distinct illnesses, the diagnosis and management of illness in culturally diverse settings, and the relationship of socioeconomic factors to health and health care delivery. The site and experience must be pre-approved by the program director; upon completion of the rotation the resident presents a review of their experience. All international experiences are funded by the Benjamin H. Josephson, MD Fund, a foundation established to honor a founder of the residency, through the Department of Family Medicine.

Partner Medical Schools
Overlook Family Medicine Residency Program provides experiences for medical students from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY; University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in Newark, NJ;  Drexel University Medical School in Philadelphia, PA; Kirksville Osteopathic Medical School in Kirksville, MO; and St. George's University School of Medicine, Grenada. Students from all four medical schools can participate in a third year outpatient Family Medicine/Primary Care rotation. Students from Kirksville also participate in a required fourth year outpatient rotation. First year medical students can participate in half-day a week clinical experiences with residency faculty. Fourth year students may elect to do a one month Family Medicine sub-internship with a Family Medicine team on the Adult Medicine Service at Overlook Hospital.

Students spend time in both our Chatham and Summit offices, the Berkeley Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and also accompany our residents and nurse practitioner on home visits.