Letter From The Training Director
Dear Residency Applicant,
Welcome!
The UCSD Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a premier academic curriculum, located in the spectacular climate of Southern California. We invite you to join our team of faculty, house staff, and healthcare professionals who are dedicated to providing an optimal teaching and research environment while delivering topnotch, compassionate care to a diverse group of patients in three world-class teaching hospitals and a number of community outpatient clinics. With these opportunities you will be well prepared for a myriad of careers whether you decide on research and academic medicine or a clinical practice. Furthermore, the training exposes you to all of the subspecialties and prepares you for highly competitive academic fellowships if that is the path you choose.
We all are immersed in a challenging time in medical education, and it is our philosophy that we join together in making decisions that will result in maintaining the sacrosanct nature of our wonderful profession. In that light, we have come through the first phase of these changes successfully only by communicating and learning from each other while maintaining superb care of our patients and nurturing a philosophy of lifelong learning and curiosity. In that light, we further invite you to be a critical part of shaping medical education for the future. Our faculty includes world leaders in both basic science research and clinical medicine. They fuel a vibrant environment with cross-fertilization of ideas that teaches all of us to learn the mechanism of disease and thus become thoughtful investigators and practitioners. Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, Chairman, is dedicated to this philosophy, and his presence here over the last five years has positively influenced this approach to learning which is reflected in enthusiastic residents and students and better patient care.
You also will learn a great deal from your colleagues in the residency. Our housestaff is made up of a highly select group of over ninety talented trainees. You will learn to ask questions freely, teach, and be a role model to those with whom you come in contact. The residents have a camaraderie that supports each other as a team and a spirit that goes beyond the hospital which teaches you how to balance all aspects of your life so that each is fueled by the other. The San Diego environment also affords you many opportunities for recreational activities from culture and art to the proximity of water and mountains which provide the essential ingredients for a full life with friends, loved ones, patients, and colleagues.
In addition to our Categorical Internal Medicine Program, there is also a Research Residency Pathway for those residents interested in an academic research career, as well as a two-month research elective for the second or third year for which a number of residents apply.
In conjunction with the Department of Pediatrics, we offer a four-year Combined Medicine/Pediatrics program which qualifies trainees for dual Board eligibility.
There is also a one-year Preliminary Medicine track for residents who will be continuing training in other specialties.
All these programs are outlined on this website and will participate in ERAS and the National Residency Matching Program.
We are thus delighted to introduce you to our residency training program. We are quite proud of our residents and believe that we can offer you an exciting, well-rounded, and challenging experience that will serve you well in your future endeavors.
I hope this website helps to answer your important questions. If not, please feel free to contact us in the recruitment office at (619) 543-3973 or email our coordinators directly. Looking forward to meeting you in the coming year.
Sincerely,
Elaine Muchmore, M.D.
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Director, Residency Training Program