Training the urban health care provider: one department's first steps.

As our country faces a national crisis in health care, few have outlined plans to improve the shortage of primary care physicians. This is especially critical in urban areas where sociocultural impacts on health are large. The Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine at the University of Texas School of Medicine in Houston has begun development of a division of Urban Family Medicine to address the special training needs of the urban family practitioner. Subdivisions that have been formed focus on undergraduate curriculum, graduate educational strategies, service, and research and policy to further develop the training model.