Predoctoral Education Program
Family Medicine offers courses for undergraduate medical students
throughout all four years of the medical curriculum. Family Medicine
faculty also act serve as examiners in the fourth-year Integrative
Curriculum Evaluation Exercise (ICEE), as advisers for both individual
students and for student groups, and on various course committees and
on committees for the School of Medicine. Family Medicine faculty also
conduct funded educational and curricular research.
The required third-year clerkship in Family Medicine is a four-week
ambulatory, community-based rotation at family medicine clinical sites
across Texas. The clerkship faculty include both campus-based faculty
and community faculty from across the state. The clerkship has
consistently been one of the highest-ranked School of Medicine courses
over the past decade. Oversight of the clerkship is the responsibility
of the Family Medicine Predoctoral Education Committee. It is comprised
of the clerkship director, physicians, educators, community development
specialists, and secretarial staff. The committee meets regularly to
address issues that arise and to discuss and work on ideas for
improving the clerkship.
Meet our Director
The Predoctoral Program is led by Gurjeet S. Shokar, MD. Dr. Shokar is a Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He is director of the Pre-doctoral division and also directs the third year family medicine clerkship. He received his MD degree in 1988, and later served as a family physician in England before moving to the US in 1996. After finishing his family medicine residency in Houston, Texas in 1999, he joined the family medicine department at UTMB Galveston. Dr. Shokar also completed a faculty development fellowship in 2002, and is currently enrolled in the ADFM Chair Pipeline Fellowship. He has worked predominantly with the Predoctoral program and has taught in all four years of the School of Medicine Curriculum. His educational interests include web based education, self directed learning and learner performance on standardized exams. He has presented his work at many national conferences, and has several peer reviewed articles in the medical education literature. Dr. Shokar currently serves on a number of national committees, and is recognized nationally for his contribution to web-based education.