The inaugural Nuvance Health System Chair for Primary Care, Cornelius Ferreira, MD FAAFP is responsible for shaping, crafting and deploying the system-wide approach to Primary Care across Nuvance Health’s 250 square mile service area.

Dr. Ferreira is a long-standing and highly respected member of the Nuvance Health system and the medical community. Most recently he served as the Network Director for Primary Care for the legacy Western Connecticut Medical Group. 

Cornelius has been recognized as a change agent driving Primary Care’s expansion and serving as one of its key imaginative evangelists. So much so, in fact, that he has also been honored and recognized as the first Neligan-Safford Endowed Chair for Primary Care. This is a true testament to his past efforts and future commitment to Primary Care.

Recognizing the evolving changes in the delivery of healthcare, Nuvance Health exhibited its agility and wisely elected to create an enterprise-wide focus on primary and ambulatory care. While the Nuvance Health leadership fully recognizes that “all medicine is local,” energies needed to be focused on ensuring the consistency of primary care for the patients we serve. With the creation of a Primary Care service line, Quality, Access and Service becomes standardized across our Network while maintaining the personal high touch reputation for care that we enjoy. It will also hasten the adoption of value-based care strategies and help to drive our market-leading approach to Population Health.

Dr. Ferreira maintains his Family Practice at the Brookfield Family Medicine Practice in Brookfield, CT. A native of South Africa, Dr. Ferreira received his Medical Degree from the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He then completed post-graduate work in experimental psychology and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He completed his graduate medical education at the University of Mississippi Medical Center at North Mississippi Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program in Tupelo.  After spending time working in rural Iowa, Dr. Ferreira moved to join a practice in North Carolina before moving to Connecticut and the Western Connecticut Medical Group in 2010.