Photographs courtesy of ChristianaCare
The ChristianaCare Household Medication Residency Application celebrates 50-additionally yrs of teaching physicians in the Delaware neighborhood and past.
A enthusiasm for instruction top-notch medical professionals and serving individuals in their community communities has been a essential to the achievement of ChristianaCare’s Spouse and children Drugs Residency Method, which has been planning doctors to supply a comprehensive spectrum of well being care providers for extra than a fifty percent century.
In 2021, the application celebrated its 50th anniversary and has trained extra than 300 household drugs physicians in its record, several of whom have gone on to provide communities through Delaware, the United States, Canada and beyond. Program graduates have also absent on to function in subspecialties this kind of as athletics drugs, crisis drugs and urgent care, and community wellbeing, as well as serving as clinical administrators and in other leadership roles all in excess of the entire world.
The software was started in 1971 by Dene Walters, M.D., who felt there was a want for a family drugs application in the neighborhood. Walters served as inaugural director of the program, which was centrally found at 1202 Jefferson Road in the Household Exercise Place of work of Wilmington Healthcare Centre, a precursor to ChristianaCare. At the time it was only the second Relatives Medicine Residency Method inside 200 miles of Philadelphia.

Erin Kavanaugh, M.D., FAAFP
“Our Family members Medication Residency Plan and its heritage of education, schooling and assistance have produced immeasurable opportunities for our people and the communities they care for,” claimed Erin Kavanaugh, M.D., FAAFP, who completed her own loved ones drugs residency via the application in 2010 and now serves as director of the program, as well as interim chair of ChristianaCare’s Office of Loved ones & Local community Medicine and co-method director for ChristianaCare’s 5-yr Emergency Medicine/Loved ones Drugs residency application.
Kavanaugh, a native of Wilmington, understood from an early age that she preferred to be a physician and was generally drawn to major care. “The capability to learn so a great deal about so lots of ailments and enable people today in the course of the training course of their lifetime throughout a assortment of well being care settings is what drew me to family medication,” she says. “People frequently imagine of loved ones medicine as principal care only shipped in an office location, but that is not all we do.” Loved ones medicine doctors are able to handle unique forms of clients with a wide array of problems in a selection of group configurations, no matter whether it’s in a doctor’s place of work, a clinic, a clinic, nursing households, colleges, wellness facilities, cellular well being units, and a lot more.
“While other specialties target on an organ or a illness, family members physicians are educated to provide comprehensive health care for persons of all ages, from infants to seniors. Our purpose is to foresee our patients’ wants all over their life span, coordinate their treatment, deliver continuity of treatment when they are hospitalized, and take care of whatever variety of circumstances they might have,” says Kavanaugh.
As an alumni of ChristianaCare’s Family Medicine Residency software, Kavanaugh is passionate about the possibilities it affords its citizens and the communities it serves.
“We believe that our program is one of the best held techniques in Delaware, by way of which we’re in a position to provide as total companions with our people and our local community, when getting fully commited to instructing the following era of household practitioners who can go on to turn into leaders in the entire world of medication,” she stresses. “We’re training top tier medical practitioners, mainly because of to the networks and interactions they’ve built by means of our residency software.”
In addition to acquiring residents get the job done in medical center and most important care options, ChristianaCare is effective with companions in the neighborhood to present pupils with working experience in other disciplines these kinds of as clinics and wellness facilities, schools, geriatric facilities, homeless shelters and habit facilities, or any other populations they are passionate about serving.
“Whatever region of treatment method a resident will come into our application passionate about, we possibly currently have a marriage in the group or are dedicated to developing a new 1, so that learner stays linked to what brought them to loved ones drugs from day a single,” claims Kavanaugh.

Kristine LaRocca, D.O.
For Kristine LaRocca, D.O., operator of LaRocca Health-related Body weight Decline in Greenville, DE, a study job she participated in on body weight administration and Form 2 diabetic issues as a resident in ChristianaCare’s Relatives Medicine Residency Application aided her obtain her practice specialized niche.
A native of Newark, DE, LaRocca’s journey to starting to be a doctor started immediately after serving in the Delaware Military Countrywide Guard and functioning as a battle medic in Afghanistan. After graduating from clinical college at the Philadelphia College or university of Osteopathic Medication she returned to Delaware for her residency method.
“I knew I wished to stay in Delaware owing to my activities with the National Guard and with clinic programs,” claims LaRocca. “I selected ChristianaCare’s Loved ones Medication Residency Method for the reason that it is portion of these types of a sturdy clinical technique with a wonderful network of experts and major treatment physicians, as effectively as an tutorial healthcare facility in a state with a compact-city vibe. The residency method was incredibly supportive of serving to us find our specialized niche and selecting which route we wanted to get relating to the apply of family members medication. The arms-on working experience and supportive methods available all over the plan supplied me with the opportunity to go after my passion and ultimately open my individual apply.”
LaRocca now performs with college students from the residency software in her facility. “My experience in the software has now appear complete circle. I’ve grow to be part of the assistance community that I appreciated so a great deal, and I can now direct by illustration and train inhabitants and learners about being overweight medication and how to assistance patients get rid of excessive body weight by means of life-style alterations and education.”

Ashley E. Panichelli, M.D.
The part of training in individual overall health and conference people the place they are led New Castle native Ashley E. Panichelli, M.D., to pursue a occupation in medicine as perfectly. Also a graduate of ChristianaCare’s Loved ones Drugs Residency System, she presently serves as Scientific Instructor of Household & Neighborhood Medicine at Sydney Kimmel Clinical College or university of Thomas Jefferson College.
“I was launched to spouse and children medicine though attending college in Middlebury, Vermont,” suggests Panichelli. “I did an internship where I partnered with an wonderful spouse and children medical doctor who took on drugs as her next profession. She labored as a solo practitioner in a truly tiny practice, and I beloved that aspect of personal treatment, sitting down with patients and conversing to them about what was heading on in their life, how that was impacting their potential to get their drugs or take treatment of their wellbeing. I believed it was this sort of a good way to have interaction with folks and meet up with them exactly where they had been, answering the get in touch with of what was necessary for the nearby neighborhood.”
Panichelli went on to come to be Chief Resident, as perfectly as serving as a school member following her residency software.
“Through my residency I discovered how to take treatment of individuals, but I also received an possibility to find out what I was passionate about, like mastering about how procedures were operate and how to make them far more efficient. I figured out a good deal about leadership and the great importance of education, not only for my individuals and their people, but also for my fellow citizens. In my position as a school member, I was equipped to carry on to help mould potential medical practitioners in the practice of family members medication and present them with the ability sets essential to choose care of their community communities.”
No matter if citizens are hunting to do the job in an business office ecosystem, with a certain inhabitants in their regional community or in an administrative function, ChristianaCare’s Household Drugs Residency can supply graduates with all the instruments they want to learn and develop wherever they go.
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