Family and Community Medicine

Family practice is the medical specialty which is concerned with the total health care of the individual and the family.

The Cooper Family Practitioner provides medical services to keep the family healthy, and when necessary, manages family members' acute and chronic illnesses. Family practice involves total health care delivery and its scope is not limited by age, sex, organ system or disease entity.

With offices located throughout Camden, Gloucester and Burlington Counties and nearly twenty board-certified specialists on staff, Cooper University Hospital is South Jersey’s choice for university-level care in a family medicine setting.

While family practice follows the general practice tradition, it has major differences from general practice. Family practice residencies developed in response to a perceived need by the public, the medical profession and the government for well-trained generalists. In addition to receiving broad hospital training, family practice residents receive extensive training in comprehensive and continuous outpatient medicine for persons of all ages.

As a specialty, family practice has stringent requirements for continuing medical education, board certification and board recertification every seven years. Family practice was the first practice to require recertification.