About the Institution

Loma Linda University (LLU) is a church-affiliated health sciences institution whose motto "To Make Man Whole" summarizes succinctly its mission. When the LLU School of Medicine began in 1906 its foundation was built on the concepts of preventive medicine, healthy lifestyles, and service. In the years since six other health science schools have developed within the University including Public Health, Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Today, over 100 years later, LLU continues its emphasis on health, healing, hope, and wholeness.

For the Family and Preventive Medicine Residency, LLU's foundation is valuable in several ways. It gives us confidence in the institutional support of our program. It allows us to implement both our lifestyle medicine and global health tracks knowing that elective experiences in these areas will receive financial assistance. And most importantly it supports our mission of training the whole physician to care for the whole patient in the context of his or her family and community.

Family Medicine Department

The Department of Family Medicine at LLU is distinguished in many areas. Its undergraduate curriculum provides the background that leads to LLU consistently being one of the top five family physician producing medical schools in the country. Besides the combined program, its graduate medical education offerings include a straight family medicine residency, an innovative longitudinal rural family medicine training program, and special emphases on palliative care and geriatric education.

The department takes a leadership role at Loma Linda, with the department chair currently being the chief of staff for LLU Medical Center. The department runs both the palliative care and the urgent care services for LLUMC and is looked to for innovations in whole person care as well as quality improvement. The Faculty Clinic has adopted innovative and award winning programs for diabetes care, open access appointment scheduling, and electronic medical record implementation.

The Department of Family Medicine consists of 43 faculty including 9 who have core residency teaching appointments. Within the residency there are specialists in preventive medicine, geriatrics, sports medicine, whole person care, and behavioral medicine.

Preventive Medicine Department

The Department of Preventive Medicine at LLU is the largest clinical preventive medicine department in the country. It offers a four-year curriculum to medical students and provides graduate medical education in the form of a straight Preventive Medicine Residency, an Occupational Medicine Residency, an Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and a combined residency with Family Medicine.

Clinically the department operates a Center for Health Promotion whose focus is lifestyle medicine and an Occupational Medicine Center specializing in employee health and work related injuries. The department is also the primary physician provider for the LLU SACHS community health center and contracts with five separate area colleges for student health physicians. Research involvement includes studies on nutritional epidemiology, smoking cessation, and obesity.

The department consists of 43 members, most of whom have joint appointments in the School of Public Health, and many of whom are primarily based in community preventive medicine positions. There are thirteen preventive medicine physicians in the LLU preventive medicine practice group and six who are core residency faculty.