Family Medicine Residency Program
Our Family Medicine residency prides itself on its inpatient medicine and ambulatory care education, focused on disease prevention, health promotion and chronic disease management.
The Virtua Family Medicine Residency Program has been in existence for over 45 years. As one of the very first approved Family Medicine Residencies in the nation, we are proud to say that our community is filled with graduates from our program, and we are excited to educate residents well into the next 45+ years.
Welcome Message from the Program Director
The Virtua Health Family Medicine Residency Program welcomes you to apply. Program Director Mario Maffei, MD, offers this message to prospective students.
About the Family Medicine Residency Program
The Virtua Family Medicine Residency has been training residents in family medicine since the inception of the program in 1977. Since then, our program has changed in many ways, but our core mission, vision, and goals have not—we will train you to be the best family physician that you can be. Many of our graduates stay in the area and practice locally. Our hopes are to recruit the excellent family physicians that we train to stay within our area and provide comprehensive primary care to the Virtua community. Through our association with Virtua Medical Group, we have been able to offer employment to any resident who wants to stay in the area, thus allowing for a sense of "future job security" to those residents who have built a life in the surrounding area over their last 3 years of training.
At Virtua, we are preparing our residents to function in the healthcare environment of the future. We believe a Family Physician should be capable of leading care in any setting, and our program is built around this premise. You will become facile at handling all the complexities of family medicine through training at Virtua, including population health, social determinants of health, navigating the complexities of the healthcare system, and mental health – all critical areas for our doctors of tomorrow to learn. You will develop extensive expertise in promoting healthy lifestyles and in using appropriate screening tools to prevent the burden of disease in both individuals and within the community. Leadership, quality improvement, and research training will provide the tools you need to develop into the future leaders of the medical community.
An Overview of the Program
Why Choose the Virtua Family Medicine Residency?
Evidence-based Care
Our residency emphasizes the application of evidence-based care, through our precepting methodology and our approach to clinical care. Through precepting, we enable each resident to achieve their personal best through continual constructive feedback on clinical management, behavioral attitudes, and techniques for improvement. Our precepting tool, Precept-Assist™ is a computerized, web-based point-of-care feedback system developed by the program for you to get continuous daily feedback.
Evidence-based Care
Our residency emphasizes the application of evidence-based care, through our precepting methodology and our approach to clinical care. Through precepting, we enable each resident to achieve their personal best through continual constructive feedback on clinical management, behavioral attitudes, and techniques for improvement. Our precepting tool, Precept-Assist™ is a computerized, web-based point-of-care feedback system developed by the program for you to get continuous daily feedback.
Real-world Medicine
You will learn the critical elements of the business of medicine and the success of practice development throughout your residency. You will learn to balance the resources of medicine not only through your own managed care patients, but also through the struggle to identify the resources necessary for your underserved patients.
Real-world Medicine
You will learn the critical elements of the business of medicine and the success of practice development throughout your residency. You will learn to balance the resources of medicine not only through your own managed care patients, but also through the struggle to identify the resources necessary for your underserved patients.
Lead Care in Any Setting
Gaining experience in all areas during training will provide the confidence and competence you need to succeed. Population health, social determinants of health, navigating the complexities of the healthcare system and mental health are so important for our doctors of tomorrow to learn, and you will become facile at handling all these complexities through training at Virtua.
Lead Care in Any Setting
Gaining experience in all areas during training will provide the confidence and competence you need to succeed. Population health, social determinants of health, navigating the complexities of the healthcare system and mental health are so important for our doctors of tomorrow to learn, and you will become facile at handling all these complexities through training at Virtua.
Personalized Training
Based on your interests, you can choose from one of three family practice centers as your continuity site, which allows a tailored education to meet your career goals. In all our locations, the goal of the Virtua Family Medicine Residency remains the same – to provide outstanding clinical training to develop Board-Certified Family Physicians who will provide high quality, comprehensive care to patients of all ages and in all settings, thereby maintaining and improving the health of the communities we serve.
Personalized Training
Based on your interests, you can choose from one of three family practice centers as your continuity site, which allows a tailored education to meet your career goals. In all our locations, the goal of the Virtua Family Medicine Residency remains the same – to provide outstanding clinical training to develop Board-Certified Family Physicians who will provide high quality, comprehensive care to patients of all ages and in all settings, thereby maintaining and improving the health of the communities we serve.
More Information
Our curriculum is structured as 1-month blocks on each rotation, with varying office time during each rotation.
- PGY-1 may be in the office for 1-3 sessions per week
- PGY-2 may be in the office for 2-4 sessions per week
- PGY-3 may be in the office for 4+ sessions per week
PGY-1 Curriculum:
- Emergency Medicine – Virtua Voorhees
- Cardiology – Virtua Voorhees/Virtua Marlton/Outpatient
- Inpatient Family Medicine – Virtua Voorhees
- Night Float – Virtua Voorhees
- Newborn – Virtua Voorhees
- Obstetrics (2 Months) – Virtua Mount Holly
- Pediatrics – Virtua Mount Holly
- Neurology/Psychiatry – Virtua Voorhees/Outpatient Offices
- Family Medicine Center Office Rotation
- Orthopedics – Outpatient Offices
- Medical Subspecialties – Outpatient Offices
PGY-2 Curriculum:
- ICU – Virtua Voorhees
- Neonatal ICU – Virtua Voorhees
- Inpatient Family Medicine – Virtua Voorhees
- Night Float – Virtua Voorhees
- Emergency Medicine- Virtua Mount Holly
- Research and Scholarly Activity
- Sports Medicine –Outpatient
- Surgical Subspecialties
- Geriatrics
- Ambulatory Pediatrics
- Electives (2 months)
PGY-3 Curriculum:
- Inpatient Family Medicine – Virtua Voorhees
- Night Float – Virtua Voorhees
- Family Medicine Center Office Rotation
- Resident as Teacher – Precepting – Outpatient/Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine
- Population Health (2 weeks) / Endocrinology (2 weeks)
- Gynecology
- Pain Management/Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
- Ambulatory Pediatrics
- Electives (4 months)
Our program offers distinct focused experiences for our residents who are seeking more experience in certain clinical areas. While all residents will share in the rich educational opportunities our curriculum provides, you will have the opportunity to choose which clinical site best fits your career goals once you match into the program:
- Osteopathic/Sports Medicine: for those interested in Osteopathic Training and Sports Medicine coverage, the Stratford and Washington Township clinical sites will allow you to obtain further training in and practice hands on Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine during your clinical sessions.
- Pediatrics: at the Tatem Brown clinical site, 35% of our visits are pediatric patients. For those interested in Pediatric medicine, you will get the opportunity to have a larger panel size dedicated to the pediatric population.
- Specialized Tracks -our program offers tracks for those considering fellowships or simply want further experience in a particular area. A resident would “apply” for the specialized track to begin in his/her PGY-2 year having demonstrated special interest in this area, with only a certain number of residents accepted into each track each year. Specialized Tracks are available in:
- Sports Medicine
- Prepare for a Sports Medicine Fellowship through mentorship, scholarship, event coverage/team physician responsibilities and using electives to enhance your experience in neuromusculoskeletal medicine.
- Geriatrics
- Prepare for a Geriatrics Fellowship through mentorship, scholarship, advanced Long-Term Care facility exposure and using electives to enhance your experience in geriatric medicine
- Faculty Development/Research
- Prepare for a Faculty Development Fellowship through mentorship, scholarship and using electives to enhance your experience in teaching medical students and junior residents.
- Pediatrics
- Increase your Pediatric experience by using electives to enhance your experience in inpatient and ambulatory Pediatrics.
- Hospital Medicine
- Prepare for a career in Hospital Medicine through mentorship and using electives to enhance your experience in inpatient and administrative medicine.
- Community Medicine
- involves spending time caring for uninsured patients at our local free clinic (https://www.cherryhillfreeclinic.org) and caring for pediatric patients with a multidisciplinary team on our Pediatric Mobile Van.
In addition to the above monthly “block rotations”, we have longitudinal experiences built into the curriculum that will enhance your skills:
- Practice Management and Leadership Training: One of our residency goals is to teach residents how to manage and operate a family practice office and learn the business of medicine. This training is completed by a weekly longitudinal experience of practice management during the second half of the PGY 2 year. Incorporated into this curriculum are Leadership concepts to aid residents in the development of these skills, as they take lead roles in residency-based and external committees.
- Behavioral Medicine Training: From the first day of residency, our residents receive extensive training in behavioral health, and this continues throughout residency training. From basic interview skills to diagnosis and treatment of more complex mental health issues, our residents become skilled in managing many mental health disorders that they will encounter throughout their career. Our full-time clinical behaviorist leads the development of this longitudinal curriculum, teaching basics of cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing, and is available for warm patient hand-offs for consultation and short-term therapy.
Elective Opportunities
Below are examples of Elective Rotations our residents have done over the last several years. We feature a total of 6 electives to allow you to achieve career and learning goals with the curriculum shaped to you! In addition to learning from any of the rotations already offered, you can gain further experience in the following:
- Precepting/Teaching Elective
- Administrative Medicine
- Urgent Care
- Outpatient Pediatrics
- Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Manipulative Medicine
- POCUS
Osteopathic Training
Our program is directly affiliated with Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine and provides all residents with the opportunity to learn about osteopathic principles and practice in formal didactic education, hands-on patient care experiences and teaching opportunities.
Research Training
Residents will complete an original research project of their choosing during their residency training. Residents will receive guidance and assistance from capable faculty on selecting a topic, a mentor and a project. Residents have presented their projects regionally and nationally in the past, some even winning poster competitions!
Fellowships
Our program offers many opportunities to explore fellowship programs. Virtua is proud to offer a fellowship in Geriatrics. Our graduates in the recent past have been accepted to competitive fellowship in the following specialties:
- Sports Medicine
- Geriatrics
- Palliative Care
- Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine/Neuromuscular Medicine
The Precepting Process
Precept-Assist™ is a computerized, data-based feedback system, developed at Virtua Family Practice Residency, and used as the principal office evaluation system since 1995. When you are a resident here, preceptors will use the system to enter data about your performance immediately after the precept session. The areas in which feedback is given are structured into three categories:
- Knowledge: Preceptors assess your knowledge about each of the diagnoses/problems discussed during the precept session.
- Procedures: Preceptors assess your performance on procedures supervised in the office.
- Competencies: Based on your individual needs, Precept-Assist presents to the preceptor a set of behavioral and attitudinal competencies unique to family practice.
One of the important results of entering formative data after each precepting session is that the feedback is available to you immediately. This means that, instead of waiting for the monthly or quarterly evaluation session to find out "how I am doing," you, as a resident at Virtua Family Practice Residency, can see your growth on a day-to-day basis. The feedback provided online allows you to see your strengths and weaknesses, enables you to focus your learning on areas of deficit, and assists you in concentrating on those attitudinal and behavioral competencies that you need to become the best possible family physician.
Serving a diverse population of patients and learning how to best care for patients under one “medical roof” is an important teaching principal at our program. Our multidisciplinary team approach will help guide you to provide comprehensive care for patients across the continuum.
Applicant Eligibility Criteria
All applicants must meet the following criteria to be considered by the Virtua Family Medicine Residency Program for a PGY1 position. The criteria are strictly enforced to be fair to all applicants.
- All applications must come through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service); no faxes or emails will be accepted.
- Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. Virtua FMR does not sponsor applicants for employment visas.
- The medical school graduation date cannot exceed 1 year prior to the start of the academic year.
- USMLE/Comlex steps 1 and 2 should be passed on the first attempt. We will not accept applicants who have failed Comlex or Step 1 more than once, or any Step 2/Comlex 2 failures
- Applicants must be graduates of COCA or LCME-approved schools.
- All applicants will be interviewed through video conference before being accepted.
- Interviews will be conducted virtually
For International Graduates
- ECFMG certifications must be complete.
- No US clinical experience requirement, but it is preferred
How Do I Apply?
All applications for a PGY1 position must come through ERAS. Our program is a participant in The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).
Virtua Family Medicine ACGME ID:1203300002
Contact Us
Please contact us if you have any questions about your application or our program. We can be reached via email at fmresidency@virtua.org or by phone at 856-325-3707. If you are a patient, please contact Virtua Primary Care – Voorhees at 2225 Evesham Road (formerly called the Tatem-Brown Family Practice) at 856-795-4330.
We look forward to meeting you!
One of the benefits of a Virtua Health residency is access to some of the highest-performing medical facilities in the region.
With five hospitals and more than 350 locations in South Jersey, Virtua provides residents with the opportunity to experience rotations in a wide variety of clinical settings with the guidance of highly qualified faculty.
As a resident of the Virtua Family Medicine Residency Program, you will have the unique opportunity to work at the following Virtua facilities:
- Virtua Voorhees Hospital
- Virtua Mount Holly Hospital
- Virtua Primary Care - Voorhees at 2225 Evesham Road
- Rowan Family Medicine Stratford
- Rowan Family Medicine Washington Township - Harbor Pavilions
What are the Virtua Family Medicine Residency academic affiliations?
The Virtua Family Medicine Residency participates in the Network of Affiliated Family Practice Residencies with the Rutgers RWJMS Department of Family Practice. Through this affiliation, faculty and residents are offered unique educational experiences such as annual faculty development lectures and the ALSO (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics) course for all PGY1 residents. Additionally, the Department provides resources for resident and faculty research both within and between programs. All these activities are facilitated through regularly scheduled resident meetings and lectures, which the programs jointly support.
What does the interview day look like?
- Interviews are conducted weekly in the afternoons from approximately 1 PM- 5 PM
- All interviews are conducted virtually on the Microsoft Teams platform
- Interviews begin with a Program Overview from the Program Director
- Each applicant will interview with faculty, residents, and the program director
What should I do to prepare for my interview?
- Please ensure that all documentation is uploaded to ERAS (i.e. 3 letters of recommendation, deans letter, medical school transcripts, USMLE scores, CAF, personal statement, ECFMG certificate, CV, etc.)
- Make sure you visit the residency webpage
- The interviews are conducted on the premise that you took the time to read about the program on our website
- While visiting the residency website, please take the time to visit the faculty and resident page where you can get details on each of our faculty members - you may have similar clinical interests
Are walk-ins welcome on the day of interview?
- Walk-ins will NOT be interviewed. The residency program requires that documents be submitted in full through ERAS. Careful consideration is applied to each candidate's documentation packet prior to their invitation and arrival for their interview. If you are interested in the program, please take the proper steps to apply through ERAS, as this will be the only way that your candidacy will be considered.
The Virtua Family Medicine Residency faculty and staff are here to help you reach your professional and academic goals as a resident. Be sure to visit their online profiles to learn more about them, their clinical interests, and more.
Mario Maffei, MD - Program Director
Anne Ibay, MD - Associate Program Director & Lead Physician
Jennifer Sepede, DO- Associate Program Director
Kathleen Bradley, MD - Faculty
Philip Collins, DO - Faculty
James Gamble, MD- Faculty
Sylvester (Sutton) Hamilton, MD - Faculty
Alison Mancuso, DO - Faculty
Rebecca Moore, DO - Faculty
Kanad Mukherjee, DO, M.P.H., C.A.Q.S.M - Faculty
Robert Post, MD, MS, FAAFP - Faculty
Chelsea Shmuel, MD - Faculty
Lauren Lucente, PsyD, LPC, MS, MA - Faculty
You can view a list of all the current residents in the resource below.