Welcome to the CIFC Health Residency website! I am Dr. Joan Draper, the Designated Institutional Official for CIFC Health’s Graduate Medical Education programs. I know the choice of which residency programs to apply to can be overwhelming, and I am grateful that you have chosen to take a deeper look at the CIFC Health programs. We cultivate a community of compassionate individuals and are proud that our residents most commonly use the word family to describe their interactions with the faculty and their peers.
The Connecticut Institute for Communities (CIFC) is a community nonprofit that provides services to individuals and families living in and around Danbury, Connecticut. CIFC provides primary care medical and behavioral health services through CIFC Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) located in Downtown Danbury. CIFC Health also has women’s health, pediatrics, and dental clinical services. We have 4 stand-alone clinics and 13 school-based sites. In 2011, we were among the first FQHCs in the nation to sponsor a primary care Internal Medicine residency program, and we remain the only such program in Connecticut. Our graduates excel in outpatient primary care delivery and have graduated into advocacy and leadership positions around the country. In 2023, we welcomed the first class of residents to our newly established Psychiatry program.
The core clinical teaching experience takes place in the outpatient FQHC. Because of our suite of services, CIFC Health is fully integrated into the community we care for. We utilize extensive community outreach and a mobile health van to engage the community members and promote public health. For inpatient and academic experiences, we partner with our local and regional hospitals as well as larger academic centers including Yale-New Haven and University of Connecticut.
We hope the unique opportunity to learn and grow in an FQHC setting where you are fully embedded in the community appeals to you. We look forward to becoming part of your medical training journey.
Sincerely,
Joan P. Draper MD
DIO