Specially trained to solve puzzling diagnostic problems and handle severe chronic illnesses, doctors of internal medicine, also referred to as internists, practice medicine from a primary care perspective, but can treat and manage many ailments. Because internists spend nearly 90 percent of their time practicing medicine in an outpatient setting, much of their training must occur in the ambulatory setting.

Recognizing that ambulatory care is an integral component in the provision of healthcare services in the United States, the School of Health & Medical Sciences, in affiliation with the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, offers the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Internal Medicine Residency Program.

The residency program, which has 10 positions available, is divided over the post-graduate year (PGY) 1, 2 and 3 levels. State-of-the-art heath centers and hospitals include:

• Trinitas Hospital Family Health Center;
• Saint Michael’s Medical Center Continuity Clinic/Specialty Clinic;
  
• Trinitas Hospital, Williamson Street Campus Continuity Clinic/Specialty Clinic;
  
• Columbus Hospital; and
• JFK Medical Center, Edison Campus.

The internal medicine residency program is accredited by the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine. PGY-1 serves as the AOA Internship. Focusing on comprehensive patient care, residents work in diverse settings, including private physician offices, hospital-based continuity clinics, family health centers, and a center for indigent and homeless people. Residents, under the mentorship of a primary care clinician-educator devoted to hands-on teaching, work with patients who suffer from common and unusual medical conditions.

In a warm and supportive teaching environment, residents assume an educationally sound caseload with graduated responsibilities. Residents serve as team leaders on inpatient services, consultants in subspecialty clinics and have elective time. Training covers  flexible sigmoidoscopies, punch skin biopsies, articulura injections, pre-operative and post-operative consultation, hospitalist care, gynecology, treatment of anxiety disorders and depression, smoking cessation, counseling techniques, and stress management. Ambulatory rotations include obstetrics/gynecology; ophthalmology; dermatology; ear, nose and throat; neurology; psychiatry; orthopedics; and surgery.

Throughout the program, residents are trained to become primary care internists, hospitalists or candidates for a fellowship. The residency also offers:

• One to two months per year of ambulatory care;
• Emphasis on prevention, health promotion and early detection in the approach to healthcare delivery;
• Multi-institutional, integrated approach to the training of osteopathic internists allowing for myriad opportunities;
• Opportunity to complete a research project about a question emerging from the ambulatory experience;
• Participation in osteopathic manipulative therapy clinic, bimonthly  Journal Club, research methods and scientific writing courses, and weekly ambulatory care lecture series; and
• Experience in ambulatory subspecialty and non-internal medicine subspecialty fields.

Dedicated to providing residents with a quality learning experience, faculty are clinically experienced in general medicine, having trained in hospitals around the country and in highly regarded residency programs.

For more information on the AOA Internal Medicine Residency Program, review the program requirements and apply today.