The BWH Family Care Associates team gathers for a group photo on its opening day. From left, Carlotta Starks, RN; Luz Solano; Cynthia Hinthorne; Kitty O’Hare, MD; Colleen Monaghan, MD; and Niraj Sharma, MD, MPH.

Providing comprehensive care for adults and children, BWH Family Care Associates opened its doors at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH) on July 1.

Under the leadership of Medical Director Colleen Monaghan, MD, the new practice seeks to improve the health and wellness of the community by providing comprehensive and culturally sensitive primary care for entire families, with a focus on underserved patient populations. The practice is committed to offering continuity of care from pediatrics to adolescence and adulthood.

“We’re very excited about this new practice opportunity,” said Monaghan, who previously served as clinical director of the Family Clinic Department at Martha Elliot Health Center. “It’s the first combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics clinic to open within the Brigham system, and we believe it will be an opportunity to set a model for family-based primary care. We take care of multiple generations within the same family, so you, your child and your parent could have appointments on the same day.”

Monaghan added that a large population of her Spanish-speaking patients from Martha Elliot followed her and her colleagues to the new practice.

Staff attending physicians Monaghan, Niraj Sharma, MD, MPH, and Frances “Kitty” O’Hare, MD, who is bilingual, are trained in both internal medicine and pediatrics. They also have expertise in community-based primary care.

BWH Family Care Associates’ model is the patient-centered medical home, which offers an interdisciplinary care team that will include a social worker, medical assistant and nurse support. As the major teaching site for the Harvard Brigham and Women’s/Boston Children’s Hospital Internal Medicine and Pediatric Residency, 15 residents are training at the practice.

“We have a particular expertise in caring for patients with complex medical needs, as well as young adults with chronic diseases,” said Monaghan.

The clinic was recently awarded a grant from the Center for Primary Care of Harvard Medical School (HMS) focused on training future health care leaders by transforming practices through innovation in team-based primary care, management and prevention of chronic illnesses, management of patients with multiple illnesses, and patient empowerment and behavior change. As such, BWH Family Care Associates is now one of 19 HMS-affiliated primary care practices collaborating on primary care redesign.

The new practice is located in Suite 5960 at 1153 Centre St. To learn more, call 617-983-7025, or visit its website. The practice is accepting new adult and pediatric patients.