Research and Mentoring - Internal Medicine Residency

Mentorship is an essential component for the success of our residents.

All incoming categorical interns meet with the associate program director for research and mentoring to discuss career pursuits.

Each intern is paired with a faculty member who provides guidance as the trainee develops and solidifies their career goals.

Additionally, we offer a series of workshops on how to apply for fellowships, the fellowship interview process, creating your CV, securing a primary care or hospitalist position, among others.

Faculty and fellows facilitate resident engagement in research and take an active role in ensuring residents achieve success.

Resident Evaluation

Ongoing communication between residents and faculty is highly valued and considered critical to our success. Residents receive feedback through our web-based evaluation system (MedHub) and evaluate their attendings and rotations.  Through our Peer Evaluation System, senior residents and interns evaluate each other and receive feedback from their medical students.  Residents meet with Dr. Wolfsthal in a formal semi-annual mentoring and feedback session where we review the resident's clinical performance, career interests, and educational goals for the coming year.

Subspecialty Fellowship

Residents planning a subspecialty fellowship engage in research during their training and receive close mentoring by faculty who have diverse clinical and research interests. The Department provides financial support for residents whose research is accepted for presentation at regional or national meetings. The spring meeting of the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Physicians is an annual showcase of the residents' research and clinical case reports. At each year's May meeting, over 30 residents present their research or clinical vignettes.

Residents planning a subspecialty fellowship engage in research during their training and receive close mentoring by faculty who have diverse clinical and research interests. The Department provides financial support for residents whose research is accepted for presentation at regional or national meetings. The spring meeting of the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Physicians is an annual showcase of the residents' research and clinical case reports. At each year's May meeting, over 30 residents present their research or clinical vignettes.
Several workshops are held throughout the year where residents learn principles of research design, IRB submission and basic statistics, and process workshops on strategies for applying to fellowships, creating an academic CV, and having a successful fellowship interview. During 2020-2021, our residents published 75-peer-reviewed papers, 30 national and 32 regional abstracts and 23 media podcasts.  See our Resident Bibliography for the full listing. 

Primary Care

For those planning a career in primary care, residents take rotations in geriatrics, women's health, orthopedics, neurology, endocrinology or rheumatology. They have their continuity clinic in the Faculty Practice Offices and work alongside general medicine faculty in a private practice setting. Residents spend time in private practices in the community where they experience "real life" primary care and reach a deeper understanding of the business of medicine. Our Primary Care Chief Resident oversees the primary care content of the core curriculum, conferences and ambulatory rotations.

Hospital Medicine

For residents seeking a career in hospital medicine we offer an expanded curriculum in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI), including the IHI modules (Institute for Healthcare Improvement), longitudinal individual and group projects, and conferences on PSQI principles.  Whether residents will be hospitalists, subspecialists or primary care physician, they benefit from these offerings. They take electives that emphasize inpatient medicine, such as general medical consultation, cardiology, infectious diseases, GI and pulmonary medicine.

We offer an Elective in Hospital Medicine that exposes residents to medical consultation, quality assurance, utilization management, hospital administration and finance, and delivery of evidence based care in the inpatient setting. Under the guidance of our academic hospitalists and dedicated PSQI chief resident, our extensive curriculum in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI) is incorporated into our Morbidity and Mortality Conference and core curriculum, with all residents participating in collaborative longitudinal QI projects. 

International Health

Residents with an interest in international health attend lectures and conferences in other departments and institutes on campus, including the Institute for Human Virology and the Center for Vaccine Development. They focus their Journal Club presentations and Senior Manuscript on international health, choose research projects in international or global health, and can participate in international rotations (currently not available during the pandemic). In the past, residents have traveled to Zambia, Haiti, Kenya and India. Limited funds are available through a special endowment to support resident travel abroad.