Program Highlights

The University of Virginia Internal Medicine Residency Program has some unique features that set us apart. We continually evaluate and improve our program with the aim of providing our residents with the best educational experience and a path to reach personal career goals.

We offer a robust conference series covering acute care, primary care, board review, and evidence-based medicine taught by the best faculty at UVA.

An interactive conference series called Case File Challenge, inspired by the Tulane model, focuses on clinical problem solving in difficult cases. Upper-level residents have protected educational time to work in groups through the differential diagnosis of a difficult case using a computer lab to access internet resources. The case is followed by an expert lecturer in the relevant field.

We also offer interactive experiences at our morning report and at the Clinical Medicine Conference, a long-standing UVA tradition that challenges our third year residents to solve a difficult-to-diagnose case and demonstrate their knowledge of the entire field of Internal Medicine.

New this year is the Core Curriculum Series. This case-based conference touches on the "Bread and Butter" topics of internal medicine such as inpatient hyperglycemia management, interpretation of culture results, and rapid EKG interpretation. Although the conference series is designed for intern level discussion (with protected learning time), upper level residents are welcome to attend.

Our goal is to create physicians who are superb educators as well as superb clinicians. Recognizing that teaching begins with our resident colleagues, we offer an intern seminar-based curriculum called the Clinical Teaching Workshop. Led by the chief residents, along with one of our master physician educators, the workshop gives our interns the skills and tools to be excellent teachers during their upper-level years.

A new resident-oriented research curriculum extending across the three years of residency provides a structure for residents to be involved in meaningful, longitudinal research projects. Beginning intern year, we supervise and guide the selection of mentors and help to cultivate informal relationships that develop on the wards. During the PGY-2 year, residents participate in a special course to teach research basics including topics such as IRB applications, practical biostatistics, and grant writing. We also maintain an up-to-date listing of many Internal Medicine faculty research projects that residents can engage in. For more information, check out the Research area of our website.

We also offer the ABIM Research Pathway Track for qualified applicants with previous research experience. After completion of two years of Internal Medicine, residents on this track go directly into fellowship, typically with additional research years during fellowship (please note that a separate application is required for this option).

In 2006, the Department of Medicine began a partnership with the Department of Public Health Sciences to allow two upper-level residents to obtain a department subsidized Masters in Clinical Investigation degree by the end of their third year. Those chosen for the Clinical Investigator Track begin classes during their PGY-2 year, while maintaining their continuity clinic responsiblities.

"The CI track has enhanced my residency experience in ways I mever imagined. Typically a master's degree is offered during fellowship, but here at UVA the Master's in Clinical Investigation allows residents dedicated to a career in clinical research to develop essential skills and conduct research early in one's training, and to carry those learned practices throughout a career.

I've loved taking courses in epidemiology and statistics while concurrently working in clinics and doing my own research. I'm comfortable calculating relative risk ratios, discussing cost-benefit analysis, explaining our complex medical system from a public health perspective, and deciding the optimal way to design a research study to answer a particular question. My days of skipping over the statistics section of an article because it looked like a foreign language are over!

Although basic science is integral to medicine, the science of clinical trial research is a newer, but essential, concept that should be harmonious with the practice of evidence-based medicine. I'm proud to be part of a residency program that believes in the importance of well-trained clinical researchers. The CI track highlights that UVA's Internal Medicine Residency Program provides and encourages unique opportunities so you can make the most of your training experience."

Residents have opportunities for international research and clinical electives in cooperation with the UVA Center for Global Health. Our current collaborations are with sites in Brazil, Ghana, China, Phillipines, Bangladesh, South Africa, Mexico, Tanzania and Haiti, and Guatemala.

During the elective, we are confident that residents will have opportunities to learn about diseases relevant to the local population, to experience a different health-care system, and to discover a new culture in a safe, appropriately supervised environment. We expect that residents will take the opportunity to attend and give teaching conferences that enhance the academic environment at our partner sites. Residents will present about their experience to the UVA Department of Medicine upon their return. Learn more »

We are very proud to announce the initiation of the Global Health Curriculum for the academic year 2009-2010. This competitive specialized training track is a joint effort between the Departments of Medicine and Family Medicine and is designed to improve our residents' preparations for global health experiences. Residents apply for positions during the intern year. Currently, we accept two Internal Medicine residents annually. A Global Health elective with intensive training in tropical medicine and global health issues will be offered by Drs. Rebecca Dillingham, Chris Moore, and Kristine Peterson beginning in January 2010. In addition to in-depth exposure to international medicine and the study of tropical disease, residents also have the opportunity to work in a Travelers' ID clinic as well as the International Family Medicine Clinic which serves foreign refugees brought to the U.S. by the Charlottesville International Rescue Committee.

"The Global Health Leadership track is a really exciting program with lots of energy and potential. The goals of the track are to develop knowledge and experience in international health issues, global health policy, and cultural competance, with the aim of developing future leaders in global health.

I'll be taking a 2 week graduate course in Global Health Policy this January and one next January in Tropical Medicine. After finishing, I'll be able to sit for the Tropical Medicine Certification exam. Each month there's a global health conference and a journal club meeting. We'll also spend a one-month elective in the international refugee health clinic run by Family Medicine that collaborates with the local health department to take care of the suprisingly large refugee population in our region.

Of course, the most exciting part of the track is the international rotations. We'll be going for a month in PGY-2 and PGY-3 years for practical experience and to work on a research project. Our goal is to have a few well-established partnerships for clinical work and research; right now there's a research site in South Africa, a new clinical/research site in Uganda, a few possible sites in Guatemala, and a potential site in Guam."