What's in a name?

Physicians at medical schools around the country usually provide their services through umbrella faculty practice organizations that streamline administration, financial services, compliance programs and practice standards. Yale is no exception. But in recent years the Yale Faculty Practice, which represents the medical school’s 650 full-time clinical practitioners, has evolved into a more complex organization in order to accommodate the changing landscape of academic medicine. Reflecting this, the practice announced in March that it is changing its name to the Yale Medical Group. According to Director David J. Leffell, M.D., HS ’86, the school’s senior associate dean for clinical activity, “the words ‘faculty practice’ suggested to some people that care was delivered by interns and residents who were practicing to become physicians. The new name conveys a clear message about our academic medical group and the clinical care we provide.”