In his spare time, Allen Last, MD, MPH, the Department of Family Medicine's (DFM) new Fox Valley residency director, builds furniture. Handmade chests, tables, and cabinets fill his home in Neenah.

In many ways, building has brought Dr. Last full circle. Born and raised in the Fox Valley, he spent his first 18 years in the region. He then spent the next 18 years away, building an education, a career, a family... and his first residency program.

Now, he's back home, building the Fox Valley residency. And soon, he hopes, a set of dining room chairs.

Getting the Tools

After graduating from high school in Neenah, Dr. Last came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison intending to study electrical engineering. After a very brief detour as an art major ("just one day," he laughs), he completed undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology.

He stayed in Madison for medical school at the University of Wisconsin, and then completed a residency in family medicine at St. Margaret's Hospital, a program affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh. He remained in Pittsburgh for two more years to complete a faculty development fellowship and a master's degree in public health.

Dr. Last discovering his professional calling when he was a senior resident. "When I had the opportunity to work with first-year residents and medical students, I just fell in love with supervising and teaching in addition to patient care," he said. "So I pursued that path right away."

Foundations in Racine

Dr. Last returned to Wisconsin to join the Medical College of Wisconsin's (MCOW) Department of Family and Community Medicine, where he served on the faculty and ultimately as director of its Racine residency program.

During his four years there, Dr. Last made many improvements to the Racine program, including:

• Designing a more rigorous inpatient family medicine experience that better prepared residents for independent hospital practice.
• Transforming the journal club into a practical program on medical information mastery. For example, instead of focusing just on journal article review, the program instead taught residents how to find resources for and answers to clinical questions—all at the point of care.
• Incorporating evidence-based medicine theories and techniques throughout the residency.
• Creating a "block" system for didactic sessions. Devoting a full afternoon each week to didactics (instead of an hour each day as before) opened up opportunities for more in-depth discussions, hands-on workshops, and guest presenters from related disciplines.

The Perfect Fit

When Dr. Last learned last year that the Racine program was closing, he considered numerous other job opportunities, including hospitalist practice. But after visiting the Fox Valley residency and meeting the people there, he knew he had found the perfect fit.

"I was quite impressed by the people here," he said. "Among the faculty, there's such a breadth of interest, experience, and passion for teaching—and the administrative staff are really on top of things. The residents are great and the clinic has quality people, wonderful space and a robust population. There are a lot of great things going for this program."

And although Dr. Last is the first to praise the strength of the Fox Valley residency, he also looks forward to further building the program.

Specifically, he'd like to expand the program's private-practice training model beyond inpatient service. "Right now, if a resident's patient is admitted to the hospital, the program is set up so the resident sees that patient every day, just like in private practice," he said.

"Recently, I have been considering having residents in clinic everyday as well," he added. "There are some logistical issues, but the continuity and clinical availability would be great for their education as well as for patient satisfaction."

Dr. Last is also thinking about ways to make the program's didactic sessions more robust, perhaps through more in-depth workshops.

He's also enjoying recruiting. "I went to the recruiting conference in Kansas City and met some outstanding prospective residents," he said. "It's a lot of fun to champion my new program."

Now if he could just find time to work on those chairs.