Educational Conferences

Noon Conference

Each day residents are provided a noon conference that can take many formats. Case presentations and lectures are delivered in an interactive format, with audience response technology used to enhance the learning experience. Lunch is provided. The noon conference curriculum covers the range of clinical Internal Medicine and subspecialty topics, as well as topics such as ethics, cost-effectiveness, business aspects of medicine and health care systems. On certain days, interns learn together while senior residents attend a separate resident report conference, and on other days, residents of all levels are in conference together.

Resident Grand Rounds (Journal Club)

In the PGY2 year, residents present a clinical or research topic of their choosing to their housestaff peers and selected faculty. A faculty member who is an expert in the field moderates the session. During the presentation, the resident presents a scholarly review of the topic, including basic science background, current trends, and future directions. In addition, residents critically appraise and present an article from the recent literature that is relevant to the topic being given. Direct one-on-one mentoring and assistance with preparation are given to each resident by a chief medical resident.

Resident Report

Separate resident report conferences exist for inpatient day and night float teams. At night float report, overnight teams present newly admitted cases to the program director, chief residents and other faculty. Teaching occurs as the history, physical, radiology and lab results are reviewed and the overnight teams' management plans are discussed. At senior resident report, which occurs during the day, housestaff present multiple cases for higher level discussion of clinical reasoning, diagnosis and management. Residents are asked to teach their peers by providing evidence-based answers to questions that came up at report the previous day. At daytime intern report, interns presents a single case to the group with a chief resident moderating the session. The goal of the session is to hone history taking skills, problem representation, and differential diagnosis building.

Grand Rounds

Throughout the year, the Department of Medicine hosts nationally and internationally known speakers who present on topics in the basic and clinical sciences.

Subspecialty Conferences

Each division holds weekly subspecialty conferences, frequently including prestigious outside speakers. Residents on elective participate in these conferences. Senior residents rotating in the CCU are required to present formally to the faculty and fellows of the Department of Cardiology.

Academic Half-Day

One half day per week during primary care continuity rotations, residents from both outpatient sites come together to learn as a group. Without the pressure of clinical responsibilities immediately before and after, residents are able to learn in a relaxed, stress-free environment. Topics range from clinical medicine to quality improvement to cultural competency and beyond. Multiple formats are used, including interactive small-group based workshops, interactive case conferences and traditional lectures. Our innovative primary care curriculum also includes a wellness series which consists of mindfulness sessions led by local experts and guided debrief/reflection sessions led by our faculty. Our wellness curriculum also includes mindfulness sessions led by local experts for both categorical and preliminary residents.