Residency Program Solutions: Expert advice. Trusted results.

Family medicine residency consulting & free assessment tool

Expand, develop and strengthen your new or established program with customized consultation services backed by the AAFP and delivered by experts.

Choose from personal Express Consults, Mini Group consultations or try our new free self-assessment tool.

Online Residency Program Assessment Tool now available!

Customized residency program support from AAFP

RPS Express 90 and Express 180 consultations are now available!

We know every residency is unique, so we offer customized services to fit your needs. Our range of services are designed by experts who have been in your position.

We keep our fees affordable to support the workforce growth and sustainability needed for the specialty.

Our services include:

Personalized consultation with family medicine residency leaders (up to 60 hours)
In-depth, personalized assistance from a family medicine residency leader, either onsite or virtual, to help enhance your program. Email rps@aafp.org for a free scoping call to learn more.
Mini Group Consult (1 hour)
Live, one-hour, interactive online discussion with one RPS consultant and up to ten other family medicine residency program attendees about designated topics. These are quick and easy and require no contracting.
FREE | Learn more
RPS Express 90 and RPS Express 180 Consults
Choose from a total of 90 minutes or 180 minutes of consultant time, including live interactive online discussion with an RPS consultant and up to five program staff and faculty to address topics of your choice (identified at registration), and pre- and post-discussion work by a consultant.
Express 90 Fee: $750 | Express 180 Fee: $1,500 | Learn more

Topics we can cover:

Strategy development
Accreditation
Mock-site visits
Culture and morale
Curriculum innovation
Faculty development and management
New program development
Osteopathic recognition and added qualifications
Overall program health and sustainability
Rural training
Program management
Teaching Health Centers (THC)
Finance and financial issues
Institutional and program application review
Recruitment and retention
Family medicine practice management
Site transitions
ACGME requirements

Since 1975, Residency Program Solutions (RPS) has been a partner to family medicine residency programs as they grow and transform. RPS is committed to advancing residency programs and helping them achieve excellence in education. Our consultants are family physicians who have been carefully selected to ensure we can meet the array of program leader needs as they train doctors who do it all.

The AAFP is proud to offer RPS as part of its commitment to advancing family medicine. You're passionate about family medicine because you know it improves patients' lives and entire communities in a unique way. We share that passion.

The AAFP's new Online Residency Assessment Tool helps family medicine residency programs enhance quality and effectiveness with expert-backed recommendations. Built on the RPS Criteria for Excellence, this tool aligns with industry best practices to identify areas for improvement and ensures top-tier training. Programs can also use these criteria to demonstrate to their institutions what it takes to deliver a high-quality residency experience.

How it works:

Programs enter their own data through a quick, easy assessment to measure against the ideal and gain insights into their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
A detailed evaluation report with the program’s score and suggestions for improvement is provided via email following the assessment.

The Residency Program Solutions Criteria for Excellence is an industry-leading publication outlining best practices and policies in residency education. The Criteria is a set of aspirational guidelines used in RPS consultations. It represents the collective wisdom of consultants, each with decades of experience. Ideas and practices, peer-level experiences as residency educators and ongoing assessments of the GME learning environment form the basis for the Criteria for Excellence.

2026 updates include:

New "Coaching in Family Medicine Residencies" chapter and assessment
Revised "Health Equity, Bias and Structural Barriers to Care & Opportunity" chapter

The Residency Program Solutions' team of experts are current and former program directors, chief medical officers, designated institutional officials and department chairs—all of them family physicians who know what it takes to train the world's most in-demand, essential doctors.

Focused on you

Victor H. Agbeibor, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Dr. Agbeibor is the program director for the Virginia Commonwealth University-Bon Secours Family Medicine and Rural Track Residency Program in Richmond, Virginia, and serves as a clinical professor at the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Population Health. He is also the vice president of graduate medical education and the designated institutional official for the Bon Secours Mercy Health System. He is passionate about global health and medical education. Prior to his current roles, Dr. Agbeibor received his medical degree from the Tver State Medical School in Russia, completed his residency training at In His Image in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and earned an MPH at the University of Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. He joined the consultant panel in 2023.

Deborah S. Clements, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Clements is the chair of Family and Community Medicine and the Nancy and Warren Furey Professor of Community Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also served as the inaugural program director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. Her national experience includes serving as the chair of the National Resident Matching Program and as a member of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine Board of Directors and is a past president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. Dr. Clements has completed fellowships in medical bioethics, health policy and integrative medicine and is a certified professional coach. She joined the consultant panel in 2023.

Alan B. Douglass, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Douglass is a clinical professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Prior to his current role, he spent 31 years at Middlesex Health in Middletown, Connecticut, where he was the long-time family medicine residency director and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-designated institutional official. Dr. Douglass trains new residency directors through the National Institute for Program Director Development and advises Health Resources and Services Administration Teaching Health Center and Rural Residency Program Development grant recipients. He received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut and completed his residency in family medicine at Middlesex Hospital and a faculty development fellowship at Duke University. Dr. Douglass is board certified in family medicine and holds a certificate of added qualification in hospice and palliative medicine. He joined the consultant panel in 2019.

Roger Garvin, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Garvin served as the family medicine residency director at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland for 12 years. Prior to his current role, Dr. Garvin practiced eight years of full-spectrum family medicine in a small town in Eastern Washington and spent 11 years on the faculty of the Spokane Family Medicine Residency. He received his medical degree from OHSU and completed his residency at Spokane Family Medicine Residency. He also completed a faculty development fellowship at the University of Washington. He joined the panel of consultants in 2015.

John Gazewood, MD

Dr. Gazewood has been the residency program director for the University of Virginia Family Medicine Residency since 2006. Previously, he served as the medical school’s course director, predoctoral program director for the family medicine department and medical director for the Family Medicine Center. Dr. Gazewood received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and completed his residency training at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He practiced full-scope family medicine for five years before returning to the University of Missouri, where he completed a faculty development and geriatrics fellowship. He has served on the consultant panel since 2019.

Alfred Chege Gitu, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Gitu is the residency program director and clinical professor of family medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine Program at Lee Health in Fort Myers, Florida. He also serves as Health Resources Services Administration advisor for grantees in the Teaching Health Center Program Development initiative. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Gitu received his medical education at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and completed his residency training in Greenwood, South Carolina. He joined the panel of consultants in 2023.

Diana Heiman, MD, CAQSM

Dr. Heiman is the associate dean for faculty affairs – clinical sciences and vice chair for academic and faculty affairs at the University of Kentucky Department of Family and Community Medicine. Prior to this, she served as the program director at the Johnson City Family Medicine Residency Program from 2012 to 2019. She initially joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut/St. Francis Hospital Family Medicine Residency as the associate residency director and associate sports medicine fellowship director from 2003 to 2011. She received her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Virginia and primary care sports medicine fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she stayed as junior faculty. She joined the consultant panel in 2019.

Bryan Hodge, DO

Dr. Hodge is the director of the Rural Health Initiatives for the Mountain Area Health Education Center in western North Carolina. He is the former program director of the Hendersonville Rural Family Medicine Residency Program and the founding program director of the Boone Family Medicine Residency Program. As an assistant clinical professor with the University of North Carolina Department of Family Medicine, he has dedicated his career to using innovative models to improve, expand and build residency training opportunities, leading to better health outcomes in areas of high need. Dr. Hodge received his degree from A.T. Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri. He joined the panel of consultants in 2019.

Hobart Lee, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Hobart Lee is the residency program director for the Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium and vice chair for the department of family medicine and associate professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Dr. Lee has experience with various residency funding sources, including for Health Resources Services Administration Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education, state grants and the Veterans Health Administration. He has experience with rural tracks, team-based care and integrated behavioral health, lifestyle medicine and has run a combined family and preventive medicine residency track. He completed his medical degree at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and did his family medicine residency and academic faculty development fellowship at the University of Michigan. He joined the panel of consultants in 2021.

Debbie Lupeika, MD, DABFM

Dr. Debbie Lupeika is associate dean of rural and community-based education and a clinical professor at the University of California (UC) Davis School of Medicine. She is faculty at Shasta Community Health Center (SCHC) Family Medicine Residency and Shasta Regional Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency in Redding, California. She is the current vice chair of the California Medical Association and an alternate delegate to the California American Medical Association. She is also a current integrative medicine fellowship participant at the University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center. She was a fellowship alumnus of the National Institute of Program Directors in 2013 and had a UC Irvine Primary Care Psychiatry Fellowship in 2020. She was the founding program director of SCHC Family Medicine Residency, a Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education from 2012-2024. She was a Redding Rancheria physician provider from 2001-2011. She completed her medical degree at Chicago Medical School in 1998 and did her residency at Mercy Redding Family Medicine Residency from 1998-2001. She Joined the panel of consultants in 2024.

Walt Mills, MD, MMM, FACPE, FAAFP

Dr. Mills is the director of medical education and program director at the Morehouse School of Medicine Dominican Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Santa Cruz, California. He has been program director and designated institutional officer at several institutions, past president of the California Academy of Family Physicians, as well as a chief medical officer and medical director as a certified physician executive. Dr. Mills attended the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency at the UCLA-Santa Monica Residency. He joined the panel of consultants in 2012 with a focus on supporting programs questing excellence in health equity for all.

Mary K. Nordling, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Nordling is a family physician and associate professor at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). She is the founding program director for OHSU’s newest family medicine residency in Hillsboro, which opened in 2021. Dr. Nordling previously served as program director and designated institutional officer for the new Hawaii Island Family Medicine Residency, helping to graduate their first two classes. Prior to that, she was an associate program director at the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency, where she also fulfilled her four-year National Health Service Corps Scholarship obligation. Dr. Nordling received her medical degree at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and completed her family medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-St. Margaret, where she also served as chief resident. She joined the panel of consultants in 2021.

Elissa Palmer, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Palmer is professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and interim assistant dean for continuing medical education at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Palmer worked in private practice at Central Maine Clinical Associates and Stowe (Vermont) Family Practice. She served as program director of the Altoona Family Physicians Residency in Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). She received her doctoral degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed by residency training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Palmer joined the panel of consultants in 2015.

Judith Pauwels, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Pauwels is a family physician and professor emeritus at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. She served as program director for 16 years at Tacoma Family Medicine and then the UW Family Medicine residency programs. Since then, her primary role is associate director for program development and accreditation for the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho (WWAMI) Family Medicine Residency Network. She has worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as a consultant on the Teaching Health Center grant program and currently serves on the Technical Assistance Center for the HRSA Rural Residency Program Development grant. Dr. Pauwels joined the panel of consultants in 2002.

Randy Pearson, MD, FAAFP, FACSM

Dr. Pearson is an associate director and core faculty member at the Sparrow/Michigan State University (MSU) Family Medicine Residency and a professor in the department of family medicine at Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine. He is also the current associate dean for graduate medical education and designated institutional officer. Previously, he served as program director for the MSU/St. Lawrence Family Practice Residency and served as the director for the MSU Sports Medicine Fellowship for many years. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and his residency training at the MSU/St. Lawrence Family Practice Residency, where he served as chief resident in his third year. He completed a faculty development fellowship through the MSU Office of Medical Education, Research and Development in 1984. Dr. Pearson joined the panel of consultant in 2019.

Louis Sanner, MD, MSPH, FAAFP

Dr. Sanner is an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in Madison, where he served as program director from 1996 to 2002 and was co-founder of the Baraboo Rural Training Track. Dr. Sanner has expertise in GME financing, overall new residency program development and residency clinic design. He has provided advanced obstetrical training to local health care providers in various parts of the developing world. He also serves as a lead advisor for many of the grantees of the Health Resources and Services Administration-funded Rural Residency Program Development and Teaching Health Center Program Development. Dr. Sanner attended Stanford Medical School. He completed his family medicine residency, chief residency and two-year research fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Sanner joined the panel of consultants in 2001.

Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH

Dr. Gregory Sawin is a practicing family physician and serves as vice chair for education and faculty development for family medicine and community health at Duke University School of Medicine. Prior to this, he was a family medicine residency director in Massachusetts for 10 years. His long work in safety net health systems, along with his focus on health care policy law and ethics, fuels his drive for health system transformation and leaning in to addressing systemic racism. He has experience with expanding primary care to include medication for opioid use disorder and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Dr. Sawin believes in Just Culture and psychological safety are fundamental pillars to building a better health system and is a leader in using restorative justice in academic medical centers to support of those efforts. Dr. Sawin joined the panel of consultants in 2023.

John B. Waits, MD, CPE, FAAFP

Dr. Waits is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cahaba Medical Care, a community health center that started in 2004 in rural Bibb County, Alabama, and serves nearly 43,000 patients with 28 offices throughout Bibb, Perry, Chilton, Jefferson, Wilcox and Shelby counties. Together in 2013, he and Dr. Lacy Smith co-founded Cahaba+University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Family Medicine Residency, where he still serves as program director and designated institutional officer. Prior to this, Dr. Waits was program director of Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency. He is a board-certified family medicine and obstetrics physician, having earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed an obstetrics fellowship at the University of Alabama, as well as residency training at In His Image Family Medicine Residency in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He joined the panel of consultants in 2024.

Emeritus status

Steven Crane, MD, MA, FAAFP
Bill Gillanders, MD, FAAFP
Kent Voorhees, MD, FAAFP

Image of Cynthia Y. Ohata, MD, Family Physician, Oak Lawn, Illinois.

“RPS helped put together our whole plan, including a month-to-month timeline, for our new program. We’re working with multiple health systems in a health professional shortage area with no previous GME experience. RPS guided us in crafting a strategic plan that clearly communicated the financial and broader organizational benefits of hosting a residency program."

Cynthia Ohata, MD, FAAFP

Program director, University of Hawaii Kauaʻi Family Medicine Residency

My account

My account

Residency Program Solutions: Expert advice. Trusted results.

Online Residency Program Assessment Tool now available!

Customized residency program support from AAFP

Our services include:

Topics we can cover:

How it works:

2026 updates include:

Focused on you

Victor H. Agbeibor, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Deborah S. Clements, MD, FAAFP

Alan B. Douglass, MD, FAAFP

Roger Garvin, MD, FAAFP

John Gazewood, MD

Alfred Chege Gitu, MD, FAAFP

Diana Heiman, MD, CAQSM

Bryan Hodge, DO

Hobart Lee, MD, FAAFP

Debbie Lupeika, MD, DABFM

Walt Mills, MD, MMM, FACPE, FAAFP

Mary K. Nordling, MD, FAAFP

Elissa Palmer, MD, FAAFP

Judith Pauwels, MD, FAAFP

Randy Pearson, MD, FAAFP, FACSM

Louis Sanner, MD, MSPH, FAAFP

Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH

John B. Waits, MD, CPE, FAAFP

Emeritus status

Residency Program Solutions: Expert advice. Trusted results.

Online Residency Program Assessment Tool now available!

Strengthen your program today

Customized residency program support from AAFP

Our services include:

Topics we can cover:

Related articles

Related events

Related blogs

Related podcasts

Related video