For immediate release: June 21, 2007
Contact: Anne McMillin
Public Relations Specialist
775-682-9254
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
Elissa Palmer, M.D. named chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Nev.—Elissa J. Palmer, M.D. has been named chair of the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine in Las Vegas. In this capacity, Palmer will oversee the clinical, research and administrative operations of the department.
Palmer joined the School of Medicine last summer as a full professor, director of reproductive services and director of the rural track residency program. She practices the full scope of family medicine including inpatient, outpatient, obstetrics, nursing home and home visits.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Palmer take the helm of our family medicine department,” says James Lenhart, M.D., vice dean of the School of Medicine and family medicine professor. “The department will benefit from her experience in implementing new programs as will the state.”
Palmer boasts both an impressive academic and professional background. She is involved in several national research projects in diabetes and genetics in addition to receiving grant funds to bring the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics course to Nevada. She has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally with most recent presentations at the Medical Group Management Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians national meetings. Palmer teaches in a national fellowship for residency program directors and was instrumental in developing the advanced fellowship program.
Previously, she served as the residency program director from 1995 to 2006 at the community-based Altoona Family Physicians Residency in Pennsylvania. She was the director of graduate medical education at Altoona Regional Health System in addition to working as the director of the residency program, Williamsburg Family Practice, Pregnancy Care Center, and Women’s Health and Wellness. She was chair of the institutional research review board. While at Altoona, she chaired the Pennsylvania Program Directors and Medical School Chairs Assembly from 1998 to 2000. In 2005, Palmer achieved the gold level of the National Program Director Recognition Award. Additionally, she served as a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and is currently a director on the board of the National Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors.
Prior to her work with Altoona, Palmer practiced in a hospital-based group in Maine where she was involved in the residency institutional review and brought obstetrics into the community family medicine practice. Before moving to Maine, she held a private practice in Stowe, Vermont during which time she precepted in the family medicine residency at the University of Vermont and earned the Parke-Davis National Award for family medicine teaching. Palmer received her formal medical training at the Family Medicine Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. While there, she was named Chief Resident and received the national Mead-Johnson Award for clinical excellence, teaching and community service. She earned her M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Manhattan College in New York.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been meeting statewide healthcare, educational, and clinical needs since 1969. The School of Medicine encompasses 16 clinical medical education departments, including Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as ten nationally-recognized departments within basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. As the largest multi-specialty healthcare focus within the state, the School of Medicine employs more than 185 doctors who both teach and practice medicine throughout Nevada. The school’s statewide faculty physician practice group has a combined 25 different medical specialties with seven physician practice offices located in the Reno-Sparks area and five physician offices located in Las Vegas.
The University of Nevada School of Medicine utilizes a best-practice approach to medicine and is committed to addressing the health needs of Nevada now and in the future. For more information, please visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.
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