Dr. Farah Ciftci Olsen graduated from medical school in Turkey and trained in Neurology before moving to the United States in 2006 to start her Internal Medicine residency at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. After residency graduation, she was asked to stay on as chief medicine resident and then as faculty member at Cook County, working as an attending physician for five years in the Division of Hospital Medicine and later the Division of General Internal Medicine.
During her time at Cook County, Dr. Ciftci served as a member of the core faculty and as Associate Firm Chief of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. She played a pivotal role in numerous educational initiatives in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings, serving as co-director of a resident research mentoring program, director of educational activities of the Division of Hospital Medicine, and Chair of the faculty development program for the Division of General Internal Medicine. She also created and implemented several innovative educational programs for residents including an ambulatory intern immersion rotation and addiction medicine rotation. In addition, her research work and clinical case presentations have been awarded various honors and published in several peer-reviewed journals such as BMJ, Seizure, and Journal of Neurology.
Dr. Ciftci joined MacNeal Hospital in 2016 as the Associate Program Director of the Transitional Year Residency Program and core faculty member of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Her focus is primarily in medical education innovation and faculty development to improve clinical teaching of housestaff.
As she has worked with all stages of learners in clinical medicine from medical students up to faculty, Dr. Ciftci believes in learner-centered teaching and every learner has the ability to improve and reach their goals with reflection, proper feedback, encouragement, and mentorship, regardless of whether the learner is a resident or a brand-new attending.