Scholarly Projects

As part of a fully integrated four-year residency, our residents complete an individual, longitudinal capstone project which requires sustained effort over the four years of residency. These projects provide residents with the opportunity to integrate and demonstrate their knowledge of a subject that interests them.

Upon completion, residents will have produced one of the following learning outcomes:

  • Development of a postgraduate medical education curriculum that is testable and can be implemented by our residency or in other educational settings.
  • A quality improvement intervention that can be reported in a publication that reflects the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) publication guidelines.
  • A clinical or community-based research project that results in a peer-reviewed, publication-ready article.

Developing one of these three learning outcomes provides our residents another avenue for professional development and a means to contribute to the knowledge base of the medical profession.

Examples of past capstone projects

  • “Feasibility of a Telemedicine Model for Inpatient Palliative Care Consults”
  • “Transgender Health Curriculum”
  • “The Effects of Psychosocial Adversity, Adult Attachment and Resilience on Health”
  • “Reproductive Health Services at School-Based Health Centers in Oregon”
  • “Predictors and Barriers of Transfers of HIV Care Between Rural Health Centers in Kenya”
  • “A Pilot Study to Investigate the Feasibility and Efficacy of Primary Care Physician- Led Shared Medical Appointments for the Treatment of Co-Morbid Major Depressive Disorder and Diabetes"

Capstone topics

2024 Presentation Topics: 

  • Using Hand-On Simulation to Promote Surgical Assist Competency
  • Improving Street Medicine Education at OHSU
  • Exploring Primary Care Practices in Obesity Medicine
  • Assessing Relational Leadership in Family Medicine Residencies in Oregon
  • Understanding Residency Candidate Interest in a Four-year Program through a Reproductive Health Lens
  • Understanding Resident Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study
  • Implementing an Air Conditioner Distribution Program: Climate Change Adaptation in Primary Care
  • "Medicine Unmasked" - Healing the Healers through Anonymous Storytelling
  • Comparison of Buprenorphine Induction Methods
  • Outpatient Management of Cases Related to Sexual & Physical Assault
  • Enhancing Abortion Care Delivery: Streamlining Processes in a Rural Family Medicine Clinic
  • Supporting Medical Students after Academic Failure

2023 Presentation Topics:

  • Obstetric and Newborn Services in Rural and Frontier Oregon - A Needs Assessment 
  • Implementing a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Curriculum for Family Medicine Residency Faculty
  • Training with Family - A Needs Assessment of Current and Former Parenting Residents in OHSU's Family Medicine Residency
  • BATHE for Resident Wellness - Findings from Inpatient Rounds
  • Continuity of Community Care in Cuba - Lessons for Rural America
  • Battling the Inner Critic - Practices in Self Compassion and Reflection for OHSU Family Medicine Residents
  • Scope - Investigation of Family Medicine-Performed Colonoscopies in Oregon
  • Assessing Utilization of the Paracervical Block in Family Medicine Faculty Clinical Practice
  • Medicine Inpatient Service Patient Presentations Pre and During Covid-19 Pandemic
  • Increasing Fetal Monitoring Access for High-Risk Pregnancies in a Rural County
  • OHSU Integrative Health Collaborative (OIHC): Exploring Virtual Platforms as a Tool for Integrative Health Collaboration
  • Food as Medicine - Evaluating a Vegetable Prescription Program in Oregon
  • Senioring 

2022 Presentation Topics:

  • Addressing Gender Bias in Remediation and Feedback
  • Human Papillomavirus Vaccination for Postpartum Patients: A Quality Improvement Initiative
  • A Foray into Biostatistical Modeling in the World of COVID
  • Implementation and Assessment of Anti-Racist Structural Competency Training for First Year Medical Students
  • Community Health Needs Assessments of the Asian American Population in the Portland Metropolitan Area
  • Integration of Lifestyle Medicine into OHSU Family Medicine Residency Curriculum
  • CPCC Reverse Integrated Behavioral Health Clinic Impact Study
  • @ohsufamilymedres: Social Media as a Tool for Applicant Recruitment
  • An Educational Presentation for OHSU Family Medicine Providers with Aim to Improve Screening for Tuberculosis in Prenatal Patients
  • Improving SIC Conversation in FM Residency
  • The F.R.E.E.dom Experiment: Family Residents Exploring Evidence

2021 Presentation Topics:

  • Mixed Methods Analysis of Outcomes of Graduates of OHSU's 4 year FM Residency
  • The EMBRACE Curriculum: Creating a Medical Student Elective on Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal
  • Physical Activity Promotion in Primary Care: Exercise as a Vital Sign
  • Needs Assessment for Reproductive Health Access in Columbia County
  • POCUS Curriculum Development in the Time of COVID
  • Improving Inpatient Didactic Teaching for Residents on a Family Medicine Inpatient Service
  • Medical Legal Partnerships: Challenges, Solutions, and Reflections
  • Landscape of Pregnancy Care in the Safety Net Setting
  • "The Interstitium": A Novel Medium for Meaning - Making in Healthcare
  • Facilitating Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy via an EHR-based SmartSet
  • Virtual Residency Interviews: Equity, Effectiveness, and Carbon Footprint

2020 Presentation Topics:

  • Improving Chronic Condition Coding and Documentation among Family Medicine Residents through a Web-based Interacting Learning Module
  • A Food Insecurity Project at the Benson School Based Health Center
  • Evaluation of Health Equity & Social Justice Book Club/Discussion Group in Family Medicine at OHSU
  • Mental Health in Portland's Muslim Population
  • Knowing & Growing: Healthy Bodies, Healthy Hearts, Healthy Lives
  • Predicting 30 Day Hospital Readmissions to the Family Medicine Inpatient Service
  • Postpartum Depression Screening at Gabriel Park: Practices and Barriers
  • Planning School Health Services in the Scappoose School District: Performing a Community Needs Assessment
  • Maintaining Values in Medicine
  • Equity and Inclusion Curriculum in Family Medicine Residency
  • Family Medicine in Botswana: Adapting an International Rotation for OHSU FM Residents
  • Patient Perspectives of Project Nurture - A Qualitative Analysis

2019 presentation Topics:

  • Who Really Matches into Primary Care & Why Family  Medicine?
  • Establishing a Hospital-based Medical Legal  Partnership
  • Training OHSU Family Medicine Residents in  Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
  • Developing an Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) to Improve Transgender Health Care
  • Program Evaluation of Oregon Medicaid's Planned  Out-of-Hospital Births Requiring Transfer to the  Hospital
  • Opiate Use Disorder Capstone - A Multifaceted  Approach
  • Family-Centered Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal  Syndrome (NOWS) Care: A Multi-disciplinary Improvement Initiative at OHSU
  • Depression and ACE Screening in Pregnancy
  • Development of a Resident Curriculum in Japan
  • Hill Family Handbook for Patient and Physician Wellness
  • Adventure Therapy for the Treatment of Addiction
  • Acquisition of Sexual and Reproductive Health Education
  • The Impact of Stress on Work Productivity among Thai Hospital Employees
  • Assessment of Diabetes Distress in a Patient Centered Primary Care Home