Curriculum

Formal coursework in the Master of Public Health Program in the Graduate School at the Icahn School of Medicine constitutes the core didactic training in epidemiology, biostatistics, and research methodology. General internal medicine fellows pursue their degree within the Outcomes Research Track of the MPH which emphasizes skills development for the study of clinical outcomes and health services. Fellows join trainees from other medical specialties and affiliated health sciences for courses in basic and advanced clinical epidemiology and biostatistics (including multivariate analysis), health services research, medical ethics, and others.

Students develop competencies in the following areas:

Identify, analyze, and interpret major clinical and public health problems and relevant clinical epidemiology, outcomes, and health services research questions.
Identify, interpret, and critique the state of knowledge regarding clinical epidemiology, outcomes, health services research questions, and public health policy.
Explain the relative advantages and disadvantages of observational and experimental methods and study design used in clinical epidemiology, outcomes, and health services research.
Specify the measurement of structure, process, and outcome in health and health care research and their implications for improving outcomes.
Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages between efficacy and effectiveness research.

Candidates may tailor the curriculum to their specific research or education interests by selecting among the various elective courses offered through the Graduate School. Coursework may be applied to a Master of Public Health degree granted by the Icahn School of Medicine. For more information regarding the degree program, visit the MPH Program.

The fellowship strives to prepare trainees for the transition from resident to academic internist with a focus on developing clinician-investigators. In addition to research, this preparation includes the development of teaching skills, participation in faculty development conferences and continued development of clinical skills.

Teaching

Fellows precept medical residents in the outpatient clinic of The Mount Sinai Hospital and depending on their area of interest may also participate in curriculum development for house staff and lead various seminars for house staff. Opportunities exist as well for teaching medical students in inpatient, outpatient and classroom settings.

Direct Patient Care

Various opportunities exist for direct patient care and are tailored to the career development needs of the trainee. Most direct patient care will occur in the outpatient setting.

Sample Weekly Schedule

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8am-12pm	Patient care	Research	Research	Divisional grand rounds 8:30am-9:30am	Seminar 8am-9am
12pm-1pm	Patient care	Works in Progress Meeting	Meeting with fellowship director	Research	Research
1pm-4pm	Research	Research	Research	Research	Patient care
5pm-7pm	MPH class	MPH class		MPH class

Conferences

Seminar in Applied Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research (Mondays biweekly at 4pm): This seminar allows fellows to hear about and present their research ideas and project results with other graduate students in the MPH Outcomes Research Track. Fellows will have their presentations critiqued by colleagues and will learn to critically assess colleagues’ research work.

Clinical Research Works in Progress Lunches (Tuesdays biweekly at noon): These lunches between faculty researchers and fellows allow fellows an opportunity to hear about clinical research projects and proposals that are taking place within the division. These lunches are also attended by clinical researchers from other divisions within the Department of Medicine. These lunches also allow fellows to identify potential research projects and mentors.

Divisional Grand Rounds (Thursdays weekly at 8:30am): This is a weekly conference for the Division of General Internal Medicine. A variety of topics including clinical research as well as clinical updates are presented by expert speakers from Mount Sinai and other institutions.

Fellowship Director’s Meeting (biweekly): This is a 1-on-1 biweekly meeting with the fellowship director to individually discuss each fellow’s progress. Topics discussed range from coursework, research projects, mentorship, teaching portfolio, clinical care issues, career goals and job opportunities.

Rotations

Internal Medicine Associates: Internal Medicine Associates (IMA) is the outpatient continuity clinic for internal medicine residents at Mount Sinai. IMA serves residents of East Harlem and upper Manhattan and has over 50,000 patient visits per year. Fellows will see patients in the urgent care practice at IMA and will precept residents in their continuity clinic at IMA.

Inpatient teaching service: Fellows are not required to do inpatient teaching but may choose to moonlight as the teaching attending on the inpatient general medicine teaching service on weekends, if desired. There is also an option to act as the ward and teaching attending on the inpatient teaching service for 2 weeks during the year as part of the hospitalists teaching team, if interested. Teaching teams consist of 2nd or 3rd year residents, interns, 3rd year students, and subinterns.