The Training Program
Our program offers outstanding clinical and research training in all areas of internal medicine. Through diverse and complementary experiences at our major teaching hospitals, and with the guidance and supervision of a strong medical school faculty, house officers attain skills in all aspects of patient care. They may choose among a wide variety of electives, developing areas of special concentration or enrichment throughout their training.
We offer both a three-year categorical program in Internal Medicine and a preliminary program. Residents may also opt for special programs such as the Primary Care Track, or the ABIM Research Pathway. Although categorical and preliminary interns work side by side, preliminary interns have options for electives not available to categorical trainees until their second and third years. It is assumed that all three-year trainees who successfully complete their internships will stay on for the second and third years. There is no pyramid.
Conferences: The formal teaching activities of the residency program are diverse. BMC and the VA hold daily morning reports, there are daily noon conferences which vary in their focus but include case-based discussions, morbidity & mortality, grand rounds, and didactic lectures on major medical topics. In addition there are many other teaching, research, and patient care conferences throughout the week to which house staff are welcome to attend. Food is provided to house staff at all conferences.
Ambulatory Morning Report: four days each week this conference is lead by the ambulatory chief resident for interns and residents on ambulatory and elective rotations. Discussions are focused on outpatient topics and issues that relate to ambulatory care.
Inpatient Morning Report: five days each week this conference is lead by the inpatient chief residents with a focus on acute management of patients actively being cared for on the various medical services. Residents present newly admitted patients and challenging cases with an opportunity for fellow house officers and attendings to discuss management in an evidence-based context. Interns are welcome at morning report, but not required to attend.
Ward Attending Rounds: formal teaching rounds are held three days each week and are lead by the teams’ teaching attending.
Medicine Grand Rounds: held weekly on Friday as the primary Department of Medicine teaching conference for all faculty and house staff. There are numerous lecturers from outside institutions as well as from within Boston University.
Firm Conference: held weekly on Wednesday in which a complicated case is presented and discussed by the house staff with multiple subspecialty consultants focusing on management.
Noon Conference: held weekly on Monday and Thursday typically in didactic format by various faculty members. This includes the Emergency lecture series (sepsis, evaluation of chest pain, evaluation of dyspnea, etc.), Medical Consult series, and Senior talks.
Morbidity & Mortality: held on the last Wednesday of each month presented by a chief resident. It is a highly regarded in-depth review and discussion one or two selected cases with unexpected outcomes.
Intern Conference: held weekly on Tuesday as a protected (i.e. beeper-free) conference for interns only. It functions as a hybrid of a morning report in which cases are presented and discussed integrated with didactic teaching on the week’s specific topic.
Primary Care Seminar Series: daily presentation of topics in ambulatory medicine, ethics, geriatrics, health policy, law and medicine, and related areas.
Resident Board Review/Journal Club: held weekly on Tuesday to provide a forum for residents to discuss current literature or review sample Internal Medicine board questions with faculty supervision.
In addition, special conferences and presentations occur throughout the year including the Franz J. Ingelfinger, William B. Castle, Philip Kramer, and Lauren Harris visiting professorships. Each November, the service commemorates the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research with a three day-long series of seminars and presentations of scholarly work completed by house officers, fellows, and faculty.
