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Message from the Director
Welcome, Residency Candidates
The technological revolution of health care is accelerating, providing unprecedented tools for patient communication, access, monitoring, diagnosis and treatment. We intend to harness and explore those advanced while preserving the connection, compassion, and critical thinking that have always been at the heart of primary care practice.
Fortunately, glaring healthcare disparities that are seen across communities may seem unsolvable but are not. They are waiting for creative, caring health care teams led by curious physician leaders to tackle the social determinants of health, advocate for change, and model the habits and character need to lead the change. As a new program, our book is still being written. I am excited to join fellow faculty, administrative leaders, and caring staff to take you from medical school graduation to practicing family physicians who improve the communities you serve.
James Schindler, MD, MPH
Program Director
Methodist Medical Center at Oak Ridge Family Medicine Residency
James Schindler Biography
Dr. Schindler grew up in a small North Dakota town and attended the University of North Dakota School of Medicine for basic sciences, earning his medical degree and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. After a residency in northern California, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, receiving his Masters of Public Health in maternal and child health.
Dr. Schindler served as the medical director for Robert Wood Johnson Healthcare for the Homeless program in Denver and the Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma, Washington before returning to Houston to direct the Division of Urban Family Medicine for UT-Houston School of Medicine. He championed efforts to plant family practice residents and faculty throughout underserved communities in Houston and directed an interdisciplinary Primary Care fellowship for the UT Health Sciences Center. Dr. Schindler then returned to Baylor as Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs for the Department of Family and Community Medicine, replicating the UT-Houston program. He served as Chief of Service for the Ben Taub Hospital and interim residency director during that time. He moved to East Tennessee to raise children and practice primary care in Morristown, Tennessee before being named founding program director for the MMC Family Medicine Residency.
Methodist Family Medicine Clinic
- Doctors Office