For physicians called to underserved communities, complex care, and courageous presence.
Train where medicine meets complexity, resilience, and hope. At Cahaba’s Urban Campus, you’ll learn full-spectrum family medicine in an underserved urban community shaped by deep need and extraordinary strength.
Rooted in a faith-informed mission, our residents grow into clinically excellent, deeply compassionate physicians… supported by mentors, shaped by shared purpose, and prepared to care well in Birmingham and beyond.
Why
Urban?
Our Urban Campus prepares residents to deliver whole-person care in high-acuity, resource-stretched environments where trust matters, adaptability matters, and presence matters. Here, you won’t just learn how to manage complexity… you’ll learn how to stay steady within it, shaped by close mentorship and a community that shares the work.
What makes
Urban Distinct
Distinctive training for physicians called to underserved communities, complex care, and mission-driven medicine.
“You’re not just choosing a program. You’re choosing the kind of doctor you’re becoming.”
Care at the edges
Train in an underserved urban community where healthcare justice is not just a value… it is daily practice.
Faith-shaped formation
Join a mission-minded learning environment that values compassion, sacrifice, service, and the dignity of every person.
Full-Scope Mastery
Build confidence across inpatient medicine, women’s health, behavioral health, procedures, and complex outpatient care.
Prepared for anywhere
Graduate ready to serve in underserved neighborhoods, hospital settings, street medicine, global clinics, and wherever the need is greatest.
Global Footprint
Each resident receives a fully funded International Medicine rotation every year
Training
Beyond Exposure
We believe in formation through repetition, responsibility, and real patient need.
It is training built around readiness.
Clinical Excellence
Advanced Procedures
Endoscopy, POCUS, stress testing, spirometry, central lines, paracentesis, lumbar punctures
Women’s Health & OB
IIUD/Nexplanon, colposcopy, endometrial biopsy, full-spectrum prenatal care, high-volume obstetrics
Integrated Urban Care
HIV medicine, addiction medicine, wound care, behavioral health integration
Community-based Specialized Care
Street medicine, shelter-based care, home visits, foster care group home visits
Unique Outreach
Foster Care Group Home visits & Osteopathic Recognition.
Derm & MSK
Biopsies, excisions, complex joint injections, osteopathic recognition
Inpatient Acuity
Our residents are the heartbeat of the hospital. You will care for patients in high-stakes inpatient and ICU settings, develop procedural skill under pressure, and grow into the kind of physician who can lead with both competence and composure.
“Here, high-acuity training doesn’t mean getting thrown in alone. It means growing through real responsibility with close mentorship, repetition, and a team that wants you to thrive.”
By The Numbers
Our graduates don't just meet requirements; they exceed them.
1,147
Average Inpatient Encounters
Average Inpatient Encounters
227
Average ICU Encounters
Average ICU encounters
90+
C-Sections for Advanced OB residents
Vaginal Deliveries
Ready to make an impact?
Come train where faith, justice, and full-spectrum medicine meet.
Schedule a rotation and see what it looks like to be built for the edges.
Family &
Community
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. - “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
“And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” - Jeremiah 29:7
The urban residency’s main health center is located in the community of West End in Birmingham, AL. Inequitable systems have taken their toll on this beautiful community. This has created an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and minister in his love through the provision of high quality healthcare.
We believe in being on mission together in this way. Being on mission together creates a deep community among our residency family. Our community and family feel that this is one of the hallmarks of our residency. Additionally, many of our residents and faculty have chosen to live in the health center’s neighborhood, to invest our lives here. This allows us to engage as neighbors and to share rich experiences in the community.
Through our award-winning quality metrics and rigorous full-scope training, our residents are equipped to deliver comprehensive care that truly impacts our community.
While our storefront is healthcare, what’s inside is a deep concern for all aspects of the welfare of our neighbors and community. “If you’re going to care at all, you must care about it all.” “For its welfare will determine [our] welfare.”
After graduation, our residents are equipped to carry these lessons and practices with them to impact individuals and their communities wherever they may go … whether streets, fields, or ends of the earth.
Full scope
FAmily Medicine
Our residency is designed to equip graduates to flourish in resource-poor areas domestically and internationally. Therefore our curriculum incorporates full spectrum Family Medicine training, as you’ll see in the section entitled “The Program.” From a broad array of procedures in the clinic and hospital … to multiple overseas rotations … to pushing locally and nationally, we provide residents with comprehensive training that will serve as the foundation on which they will build their careers.
History
Cahaba Family Medicine Residency started in 2013 as a rural residency program in Centreville, AL. The program was created to provide full spectrum preparation for marginalized rural and international communities. In 2018 the Cahaba Urban residency was formed when Resurrection Health in Memphis, TN transferred its program to Cahaba. (see more below)
In Birmingham, different sorts of people are separated by a mountain (Red Line). There is tremendous disparity in life expectancy and social determinants of health on the two sides.
The urban residents are based at the Cahaba West End Health Center which serves an area of town called West End (circled). Our residents and faculty live and provide broad spectrum family medicine care among this community.
The mission continues
The Story of Resurrection Family Medicine / Christ Community Family Medicine
In 1995, 4 doctors started Christ Community Health Services in Memphis, TN. A completely unique and groundbreaking residency resulted. That heritage transitioned to the Cahaba Urban Residency in 2018. Click here to read more of the story.
