The Wisconsin Idea is the principle that education should influence people's lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom. The UW Department of Family Medicine (UW-DFM) lives this principle every day, serving the people of Wisconsin through a wide range of innovative community service, clinical, education, and research activities.

Our faculty serve as academic partners in nearly 20 community-academic partnership grants. These projects bring together community-based organizations and faculty to address health promotion, disease prevention, health policy and health disparities throughout Wisconsin.

Each year, UW Family Medicine doctors see nearly 325,000 patients at 26 statewide clinics. UW-DFM is also a leader in Integrative Medicine, a field that aims to improve health by emphasizing the whole person: body, mind, spirit, and interconnection.

Our residency programs produce top-notch, quality physicians to care for the people of Wisconsin. In fact, 67 percent of our graduates stay in Wisconsin to practice.

Four UW-DFM faculty have influential positions as Deans at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Using their knowledge and experience as family physicians, they have created outstanding medical student education programs to teach the doctors of tomorrow.

Our faculty also play a leadership role in many important research initiatives, including:

• The UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, which focuses on translating research discoveries into clinical practice in communities;
• The Family Empowerment Network, which helps families affected by fetal alcohol syndrome; and
• The Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles (WIPHL), a screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment program that aims to prevent substance abuse among the people of Wisconsin.