SOAR Welcome – Event Snapshot

Building Stronger, Smarter, Scalable Procedural Training

SOAR Procedural Excellence 2026 brings together high‑performing Family Medicine residency programs from across the country to reveal what truly works in procedural training. Through proven systems, champion‑driven leadership, and repeatable workflows, these programs show how any residency—large, small, urban, rural—can transform procedural education for residents, faculty, and communities.

Why Procedural Excellence Matters

Traditional procedural teaching relies on chance cases and a single expert. These programs replaced randomness with structure—boosting competency, confidence, and community care.

What Successful Programs Have in Common

Champion‑Powered Systems

Residencies start with one motivated leader and grow a full ecosystem of trained champions who keep standards high and sustainable.

Foundations Over Flash

Programs teach the transferable fundamentals behind every procedure—ensuring residents stay safe, confident, and prepared, even when performing something new.

Deliberate Practice, Not Lucky Cases

Protected procedure clinics, simulations, and longitudinal practice create predictable repetition—turning competence into confidence.

Proven Results Across the Country

From a jump from 4 to 553 procedures/year, to graduates confidently providing OB, endoscopy, and advanced rural care, participating programs demonstrate measurable, repeatable success.

Real Programs, Real Impact

These featured residencies share their roadmaps to success, including:

• UAMS — Explosive procedure growth through systemized workflows and multi‑champion faculty development.
• JPS Fort Worth — Reinventing procedural culture with competency‑based training and high‑volume OB and surgery tracks.
• Via Christi Wichita — A longitudinal curriculum that boosts readiness and retention between procedures.
• UC Davis — Structured rotations, immersive workshops, and low‑barrier practice to build durable skills.
• Cahaba + UAB — Large‑scale procedural quality assurance using workshops, audits, and standardized training.

The Result: Better Care for Everyone

• Residents graduate confident and competent.
• Faculty teach more effectively with shared standards.
• Patients receive timely, in‑office procedures without specialist delays.
• Communities gain greater access—especially rural and underserved areas.

The Takeaway

Procedural excellence isn’t accidental—it’s built.
With the right champions, standardized systems, and deliberate practice, any residency can create a thriving procedural culture that lasts.

Why POCUS Matters

Family medicine programs across the country are transforming care through Point‑of‑Care Ultrasound (POCUS). These presentations highlight how three residency programs redesigned training, boosted faculty engagement, and improved patient access using scalable, real‑world POCUS models.

UNC School of Medicine: “Start With the End in Mind”

UNC redesigned its POCUS curriculum after realizing that volume ≠ mastery. Instead, they refocused on clear competency outcomes across three domains: image acquisition, image interpretation, and clinical integration.
Key innovations included:

• Longitudinal didactics & journal clubs
• Electives and research pathways
• Faculty development as the keystone
• Competency assessment through the CAMPUS exam and image portfolio

Impact: A shift from quantity to quality—and a residency culture centered on meaningful POCUS skill growth.

Waco Family Medicine: The “DIY” POCUS Curriculum

In a community program with limited specialty resources, Waco FM built a highly successful “DIY” curriculum from the ground up.
Core components included:

• Modular, asynchronous video-based didactics mapped to rotations
• A longitudinal, hands‑on scanning clinic with real patients
• Reinforcement of physics, knobology, troubleshooting, and efficient scanning

Impact: Residents became confident, efficient users; faculty skills grew organically; underserved patients gained greater access to diagnostics and procedures.

Middlesex Health Family Medicine: Learning From Failure

Middlesex reframed their POCUS journey after early attempts—sporadic training, reliance on outside experts—failed to create consistent use.
Their new model emphasized:

• Frequent, longitudinal faculty development
• Champions to lead adoption
• Embedding POCUS into routine precepting and clinical workflows

Impact: Increased enthusiasm, expanded resident use, and early steps toward systematic evaluation and integration.

Shared Best Practices Across Programs

Across all three residencies, the most effective strategies were:

• Strong champions to drive momentum
• Hands‑on, recurring learning opportunities
• Faculty development as a cultural engine
• Modular curricula that support both cognitive and technical skills
• Clear assessment frameworks to define success

Results That Matter

Programs reported:

• Increased resident engagement and confidence
• More equitable patient access to timely diagnostics
• Stronger institutional POCUS culture
• Sustainable, scalable training pathways for future cohorts

Why This Work Matters

Family Medicine residencies nationwide are strengthening their pediatric pipelines—improving newborn care, boosting continuity, and preparing graduates to confidently care for children in every setting.

Proven Success: Building Sustainable Pediatric Systems

Programs showcased how intentional pediatric strategies lead to dramatic, lasting growth.

Core Formula

• Identify a pediatric champion
• Build reliable, standardized workflows
• Remove single points of failure
• Track outcomes + adapt to disruptions

Impact Highlight

One program grew from 12 pediatric visits to 1,532 in 11 years—128× growth driven by system design and redundancy.

Best Practices That Work Anywhere
Newborn Pipeline Development

• Residents + faculty care for newborns in affiliated hospitals
• Early clinic follow‑up converts newborns into continuity patients
• Clear scheduling rules and recruitment partnerships sustain volume

Ambulatory Pediatrics Excellence

• Dedicated pediatric visit blocks
  -well‑child, acute care & chronic disease management
• Lactation support, bilirubin checks, immunizations—all in‑clinic
• Strong preceptor role‑modeling boosts competency and confidence

Retention Strategies

• High early‑life retention naturally grows into family‑wide continuity
• Multigenerational care strengthens community trust

Tackling Common Challenges

Programs overcame:

• Equipment failures (e.g., bilirubin device downtime)
• Nursing and staff turnover
• Loss of families from panels
• Strained pediatric relationships across departments

What worked: redundancy, retraining, redesigned pipelines, and proactive partnership rebuilding.

Sustainability Principles

Across all programs, long‑term success came from:

• Backup plans for critical services
• Redundancy in staff training + workflows
• Clear, reliable scheduling structures
• Ongoing data tracking and continuous improvement

Adapting Pediatric Care for Diverse Program Settings

These models proved effective in:

• Community programs
• FQHCs
• Multi‑clinic systems
• Newly developing residencies building pediatric capacity from the ground up

Evidence‑Driven Program Design

Research from the ABFM National Resident Survey shows:
More pediatric experience + more direct observation = higher self‑reported competency.
Residencies that increase exposure early and consistently produce graduates more prepared to care for children.

Strategic Program Development Priorities

• Hire faculty with full pediatric scope
• Integrate FM physicians into newborn nursery staffing
• Design FMPs intentionally for pediatric care
• Recruit pediatric populations early and actively

Partnering Beyond the Clinic

Successful programs expanded visibility and collaboration through:

• Relationships with pediatric departments, NICU teams, and community pediatricians
• Partnerships with schools, sports programs, and birth‑to‑5 initiatives
• Community screenings, school‑based health involvement, and outreach events

The Call to Action

Residency programs can start today:

• Identify your pediatric champion
• Map your top failure risks
• Fix one system vulnerability this quarter

Championship + Redundancy = Sustainable, resilient pediatric care.

Why Behavioral Health in Primary Care Matters

Primary care is mental healthcare. Residency programs nationwide are catching up to the reality that behavioral health needs are already embedded in everyday patient visits.
Programs must move beyond recognizing problems—they need to empower residents to deliver actionable, brief behavioral interventions within standard clinical encounters.

Our Challenge

Across programs, faculty consistently ask:
How do we train physicians to manage complex behavioral health conditions with confidence, competence, and observable skills?
Residency graduates often lack structured, entrustable standards for mental and behavioral healthcare in busy clinics.

Our Innovation: Advanced Behavioral Health Training

Programs featured in this deck developed new, integrated training pathways designed to equip family medicine residents with real‑world, high‑impact behavioral health competencies.

Core Innovations Include:

• 4th‑year Behavioral Medicine/AIRE training tracks to build advanced psychotherapy and psychopharmacology skills.
• Integrated care models using psychologists, LCSWs, CHWs, and consultants to support team-based behavioral care.
• Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) that translate psychotherapy into micro‑skills faculty can observe.

Key Training Elements

1. Skills Training
   Residents learn how to translate psychotherapy concepts into practical micro‑skills that fit a 15‑minute visit.
   Focus areas include empathy, engagement, assessment behaviors, and actionable communication.
2. Medication + Conversation
   A primary‑care psychopharmacology clinic model provides residents with psychiatry support and real‑time learning in effective prescribing and treatment planning.
3. Integrated Behavioral Health Champion Roles
   Residents lead care‑model implementation, collaborate across disciplines, and drive behavioral health initiatives in their clinics.

Program Models Highlighted

Medical College of Wisconsin Family Medicine Residencies
Three sites implementing an AIRE behavioral health program emphasizing psychotherapy skills, integrated care, and measurable competencies.

Waco Family Medicine Residency
A comprehensive community‑based program with immersive behavioral health experiences, apprenticeship training, and high post‑graduation behavioral health readiness (>90%).

KCU‑GME Consortium / Freeman Program
A mission‑driven rural program built on strong community partnerships, trauma‑informed care integration, grant‑supported innovation, and team‑based behavioral health services.

Real‑World Impact

Residents
Better prepared, more confident, and more capable of providing behavioral interventions directly in primary care settings.

Faculty
Gain new teaching tools, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and support from integrated behavioral teams.

Patients & Communities
Improved access to care, earlier intervention, and stronger continuity between medical and behavioral health services.

Keys to Sustainability

Across programs, long-term success came from:

• Starting small and scaling intentionally
• Cross‑discipline collaboration
• Leveraging grants and internal resources
• Continuous evaluation and adaptation
• Faculty champions who maintain momentum

What Others Can Learn

Every program—large or small—can adopt these approaches.
The key is not adding more lectures, but defining observable behavioral actions and empowering residents to practice them.
The transformation happens when faculty say:
“You’re allowed to start treatment now.”