To continue addressing the l need for more primary care physicians in Alabama, the UAB School of Medicine will offer a new track in its four-year medical degree program.

The Primary Care Track is designed to provide students a foundation in clinical medicine focused on preparation for residency training in primary care through experiences with patients, relationships with mentoring physicians, and programming on population health and physician leadership skills.

The Primary Care Track is in collaboration with the University of Alabama's College of Community Health Sciences, which serves as the School of Medicine's Tuscaloosa Regional Campus. Students in the Primary Care Track will spend their first two years completing the prerequisite basic science curriculum in Birmingham. Primary Care Track students will spend their third year in a model of clinical education called a longitudinal integrated clerkship, known as a LIC, based in Tuscaloosa or other communities around the state.

The first group of Primary Care Track students will apply to the program this summer.