Internal Medicine Residency Training Program

Introduction to Internal Medicine Training at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center

Today's practice of internal medicine requires physicians to be prepared to treat patients in multiple venues, incorporate the latest advances from the medical literature, and remain firmly grounded in traditional methods of history and physical examination. Our mission at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is to provide residents with the skills needed to successfully practice in the 21st century. St. Elizabeth's Medical Center founded in 1868 is a major teaching hospital of the Tufts University School of Medicine. It is a 400-bed academic tertiary care referral hospital and the flagship medical center for the six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care system. We have been training outstanding residents in Internal Medicine for more than 50 years.  The Department of Medicine is fully engaged in basic, translational and clinical research programs. Beyond its commitment to discovery, the Department is dedicated to training the scientists and clinical investigators of the future.

The faculty and residents of the Department of Medicine are committed to excellence in clinical care, teaching, scholarship and research. This commitment is best indicated by the increase in the number of applications for internship: ~ 2600 in 2009; ~2500 in 2008; ~2300 in 2007; ~2230 in 2006; ~1680 in 2005; ~1350 in 2004 St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center provides an outstanding venue for clinical education combining the features of a tertiary care referral center with that of a busy community hospital (including a diverse patient population with many patients from immigrant and underserved communities). The Internal Medicine Residency at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center features faculty with international reputations as clinicians, investigators, and educators. Numerous members of the faculty also occupy major leadership roles at the Tufts University School of Medicine. During the academic year 2008-2009, third year students at the Tufts University School of Medicine recognized 15 faculty and 20 residents for Excellence in Teaching.Our house officers are trained to become experts both in General Internal Medicine and in the Subspecialties of Internal Medicine. Our graduates pursue careers in academic medicine, hospital medicine, and in primary care medicine. During the last five years our residents have matched to outstanding fellowship programs in Cardiac Electrophysiology, Cardiology Research, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology and Research, Genetics, Geriatrics, Hematology and Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Nephrology, Nutrition, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Rheumatology, and Sports Medicine. Indeed, recent trainees have matched for fellowship training at Albany Medical College, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard University), Boston University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard), Brown University, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center (Tufts University), Children’s Hospital in Boston (Harvard), Cleveland Clinic, Emory University, Geisinger Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Lahey Clinic (Tufts University), Louisiana State University, Loyola University, Mt. Sinai, National Institutes of Health, Texas Heart Institute, Tufts-New England Medical Center (Tufts University), University of Arkansas, State University of New York at Buffalo, University of California @ Los Angeles, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Louisville, University of Massachusetts, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pittsburgh, University of Vermont, and Yale University.

Training is divided between ambulatory (~35%) and inpatient hospital (~65%) settings. Nearly 70 third- and fourth-year medical students from the Tufts University School of Medicine rotate yearly on the Medicine Clerkship Rotations of 4 to 12 weeks in duration. Numerous others perform fourth-year elective rotations in the ICU and on the subspecialty services. St. Elizabeth’s is also a major site for Physical Diagnosis Training for second year Tufts students.

Each week is filled with high quality teaching conferences; daily morning report, weekly intern's report, daily noon conference, grand rounds, evidence-based medicine resident conference, journal club, morbidity and mortality conference, quality improvement conference, and weekly board review. The noon conferences are designed to present a comprehensive curriculum in General and Subspecialty Medicine. The entire curriculum is contained on a state-of-the-art Intranet (accessible from home) that allows residents to obtain full text articles of suggested reading, curricula for all rotations, images in medicine, lectures, and links to key medical education sites.

The daily schedule at St. Elizabeth's has been designed to allow residents to balance their professional and personal lives. The call schedule is based on a four-day rotation ("long call" every fourth day). Team size and number of admissions are capped, overnight call is restricted to the ICU rotation, a float system relieves "long call" teams of cross coverage responsibility, and a 7-day a week float system allows "on-call" teams to stop admitting at 8:00pm. Non-teaching cardiology physician's assistant services reduce team sizes to optimize education.

There are numerous opportunities for house staff to participate in either clinical, translational, or basic science research. Indeed, more than 40% of house officers engage in one or more research projects ranging from clinical trials in the interventional cardiovascular lab, cardiac electrophysiology lab, endoscopy suite, and critical care units to cutting edge cardiovascular stem cell and cancer system biology research.

Throughout the academic year there are numerous social events for the house staff (parties, picnics) culminating in the House Officers Dinner in early June.

The comprehensive residency program at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is designed to help house staff achieve a combination of clinical skills, medical knowledge, and humanistic qualities that are the hallmark of great physicians. We offer a collegial working environment, high educational standards, and many opportunities for residents to participate in research.

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