department of medicine

Internal Medicine Residency Program

Message from the Chairman

Dear Interested Trainee:

It is my sincere pleasure to greet you as the Chairperson of the Department of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine. I’ve been in this position for the last four years, having been recruited from the Cleveland Clinic where I was Chairman of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology program. My passions are academic medicine, teaching, mentoring and clinical research. It is my honor to lead this outstanding group of physician educators and investigators at Temple.

Thank you for your interest in the medicine residency at Temple University Hospital. We are proud of our tradition of offering superior education and outstanding clinical care in an environment that champions humanism, professionalism, scholarship and innovation. The ideal Temple Medicine resident has great cognitive and clinical skills and an inquisitive mind. He/she is also a compassionate and empathetic caregiver, a charismatic educator and an inspiring leader. Our residents work best in a collegial atmosphere that places a premium on esprit and camaraderie, certainly among house staff, but also including faculty and other members of the healthcare team. We want all our trainees to be the best physicians that they possibly can be, and truly believe that our residency program is the “crown jewel” of our Department of Medicine.

Clinical demands and financial pressures affect all of us in healthcare and medical education, but our faculty is dedicated to making our residency program the best that it can be. I’m proud that our training program continues to thrive, and is only getting better.

• During our recent ACGME review, our fellowship programs were highly cited, especially Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

• Our 2008 Fellowship match was extremely successful with most residents matching at their top choice program including positions at not only Temple Hospital but also at Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Vanderbilt and the Mayo Clinic.

• We are one of a select group of residency programs awarded grant support to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative educational programs to facilitate physician competency in systems-based practice and practice-based learning. We have a state-of-the-art Simulation Center, allowing intensive training of the house staff on common procedures, rapid responses and ACLS clinical scenarios.

• Scholarly activities are emphasized during all three years of our residency program. Approximately 80% of residents participate in research projects, present at national meetings and write papers, expanding their educational horizons and making them more competitive for advanced fellowships.

• Our medicine board pass rate over the past 5 years has been over 95%.

• We have greatly expanded our ambulatory medicine clinical experiences in both primary care and subspecialty medicine.

• We have over 30 new faculty joining Internal Medicine and its subspecialties, bringing innovative research interests, clinical skills and educational prowess. We have new section chiefs in Cardiology, Infectious Diseases, and Rheumatology. We also have an NIH-funded Center for Obesity Research and Education.

• These are but a sample of objective measures that document the quality and vibrancy of a medicine residency at Temple University Hospital. Our residents enter the program with distinguished academic credentials and compelling personal attributes. They finish their training as compassionate, skilled and poised for continued success in an academic career, subspecialty fellowship or primary care.

Temple University Hospital and Temple University School of Medicine have a longstanding tradition of excellence in residency training. I am pleased to continue to grow and lead this program and remain focused on maintaining our elite, patient-oriented educational programs and recruiting an outstanding group of young physicians to join our ranks in 2009.

Sincerely,

Joel Richter, MD, FACP, MACG

Professor of Medicine

The Richard L. Evans Chair, Department of Medicine