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In August 2012 the University of Maryland School of Medicine will start a new Primary Care Track for incoming first year medical students as a collaborative program of the departments of Family and Community Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics. Its focus will be to introduce all students to primary care role models early in medical school, and to offer a longitudinal experience in primary care in rural and urban underserved communities to interested students, with the intention of increasing the number of UMD medical students who choose primary care careers in these communities.

Throughout the last decade, general interest in primary care has drastically decreased. While medical students collectively show a high awareness for the significance of primary care during their first two years of medical school, this enthusiasm wanes for many as they complete their clinical years. As a result, fewer students enter into this concentration each year. In an attempt to mediate this changing interest, the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine has implemented the Family Care Track. This longitudinal experience spans the first two years of medical school and allows for mentorship by family medicine faculty, while also providing students with the opportunity to learn via the formation of long-term relationships with patients.