Training Tracks

The categorical or "traditional" pathway is a three-year program leading to Board eligibility upon completion. This pathway prepares residents to assume diverse roles ranging from private practice in general internal medicine to further training as a clinical or research fellow.

The center of the categorical track is our core curriculum of inpatient and outpatient general internal medicine rotations. These core experiences are supported by electives in a variety of subspecialty disciplines. Residents with further interest in research are able to utilize elective time to undertake research projects under the mentorship of faculty. Current Department of Medicine research focus areas and major projects are described here.

Contact:

Program Director: Simerjot Jassal, MD

Program Administrator: Anne Bamrick-Rosenblatt

The Physician-Scientist Training Pathway (PSTP) is for applicants who already have an interest in either clinical sciences or basic science research. This pathway is best suited to graduates with an established interest in basic science research. It provides rigorous training in both clinical medicine and biological science. Often, residents opt to combine their research experience with subsequent clinical subspecialty fellowship training, satisfying both research residency requirements and requirements for subspecialty board certification. Alternatively, some may opt to perform subspecialty clinical training prior to beginning their postdoctoral research studies.

During research training, candidates maintain a weekly half-day general medicine or subspecialty continuity clinic. In this pathway, residents are first eligible for certification in internal medicine during their PGY-4 year, and subspecialty examination during their PGY-6 or PGY-7 year, depending upon the subspecialty.  Refer to the American Board of Internal Medicine research pathway certification policies and requirements
here.

For specific questions contact the program director, Dr. Renate Pilz.

The primary care block is a rotation designed specifically for the residents in the UCSD Internal Medicine Primary Care Pathway.  Residents in the Pathway will spend three, 2-week rotations on this block annually.  Each block will consist of a mix of continuity clinics, subspecialty clinics, a primary care academic half-day, and unique clinical and educational opportunities.  Preferences for the rotation will be solicited prior to the creation of the schedules in order to customize the rotation based on each resident's interests and career goals.  Residents will have a second subspecialty continuity clinic that they will attend weekly while on primary care blocks throughout the year. The field is selected by the resident and the preceptor is hand-selected by the Pathway director.  Subspecialty clinics are selected with an emphasis on learning aspects of the specialty that are most useful for a future generalist.  Special events for primary care residents are scheduled during these blocks, including panels on research opportunities in general medicine, career panels, and individualized preparation for the job search process.

Each week of the rotation will include the following:

•  3-4 continuity clinics
• 1 subspecialty continuity clinic
• additional subspecialty clinic electives
• 1 primary care academic half-day
• Time for research, patient follow-up, and PDSAs
• Site visit to a unique model of primary care delivery
• Primary care morning report
  
• Participation in regular Friday-school didactics
  

The Preliminary Medicine pathway is a one-year internship designed for resident applicants who are interested in obtaining a basic understanding of internal medicine in preparation for further training in a non-internal medicine field. Trainees in the Preliminary Medicine pathway will have an experience identical to that of the other categorical or research interns with whom they will be working, with the exception that they will not be required to have a continuity clinic.

Contact:

Program Director: Simerjot Jassal, MD

Program Administrator: Anne Bamrick-Rosenblatt

UC San Diego is also excited to offer training in our Combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program.  The goal of this residency program is to ensure comprehensive training in both internal medicine and pediatrics. Graduates are equipped with the skills and knowledge to enter either clinical or academic careers in primary care or subspecialty training.

Combined training at UC San Diego includes a total of 48 months of rotations equally divided between internal medicine and pediatrics. Residents rotate every three months between the two departments over their four years of training. There are a total of 16 residents in the Combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program; 4 residents per postgraduate year of training.

Contact:

Program Director:  Lori Wan, MD

Program Coordinator:  Heejin Kim

We are excited to be joining 3 UC San Diego Internal Medicine Preliminary Internship positions with the UC San Diego Anesthesiology training program. These positions will be linked directly in the NRMP for this year's match as a joint Advanced/Preliminary program match choice. The remainder of our Internal Medicine Preliminary Internship positions will continue to be available to outstanding applicants pursuing training in a wide variety of residencies requiring preliminary internship training.

Contact:

If you have any questions regarding the RACE Track please contact Supraja Thota (sthota@ucsd.edu).

Pathway director: Ali Farkhondehpour, MD

The University of California San Diego is an emerging leader in the field of hospital medicine. The goal of this pathway is to provide outstanding training to residents pursuing careers as practitioners, educators, and leaders in hospital medicine. This curriculum will be concordant with the principles of the Hospital Medicine Core competencies adopted by the Society of Hospital Medicine. Residents are selected through a competitive application process during the PGY-1 and PGY-2 year, based on interest, future career goals, and performance on the medicine wards. Once accepted into the pathway, residents attend monthly hospital medicine grand rounds, present a hospital-medicine focused journal club, and execute a mentored quality improvement project during a 2-month QI/research block. During PGY-3 year, residents rotate on a 4-week "Junior Hospitalist" block where they work one-on-one with an academic hospitalist, maintaining their own census of patients, and see patients as a medical consultant. Elective rotations will be curated to include unique subspecialty rotations such as 2-weeks of Neuro Stroke and 2-weeks of Neurocritical Care. The formal educational components will include high-yield, hospital-medicine focused didactics on topics including patient safety, billing/coding, business of hospital medicine, oncologic emergencies, co-management of the surgical patient, preoperative risk stratification, etc. Each resident will also be assigned a faculty mentor from the Division of Hospital Medicine to provide individual career guidance and mentorship during residency. 

 If you have any questions regarding the Hospital Medicine Pathway, please contact the pathway director, Dr. Ali Farkhondehpour (mfarkhondehpour@ucsd.edu).

Pathway director: Annie Cowell, MD

The Global Health Pathway offers residents interested enhancing health care and health systems in lower-and-middle-income countries an opportunity to participate in a multidisciplinary experience that includes didactic and experiential clinical and research training in global health. Track residents will be paired with a faculty mentor who is engaged in global health during the first year and will work with them to engage them in ongoing internationally-based collaborative projects in areas of medicine of interest to the resident. Current areas of collaboration include internal medicine, hematology, oncology, infectious diseases, cardiology, pulmonary and critical care medicine. The pathway includes a Department of Medicine-sponsored month-long rotation at Maputo Central Hospital where the UCSD resident will work alongside counterparts training in internal medicine and its sub-specialties on the internal medicine wards of MCH and participate in ongoing operational research projects that have been initiated as part of the UCSD-Mozambique collaboration. The pathway seeks to provide residents with exposure to a spectrum of disease not seen in the US, an experience that provides insights into health care delivery in resource-limited settings and will prepare interested residents for advanced training in Global Health.

If you have any questions regarding the Global Medicine Pathway, please contact the pathway director, Dr. Annie Cowell (acowell@ucsd.edu).

Pathway director: EB Sladek, MD

The Integrative Medicine Pathway is designed for interested residents to gain familiarity with the complementary and alternative therapeutics used by many of our patients, as well as non-prescription options for management of challenging medical problems such as pain, mental health, and falls. The core of the curriculum is a series of interactive modules licensed through the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and is divided into one 4-week block during the R2 or R3 year, as well as topically-relevant modules integrated into various elective blocks, including endocrinology, rheumatology, cardiology, and gastroenterology. Visits to a variety of on-site integrative clinics will also be arranged at recurring intervals. This pathway can potentially be blended into any of the other pathways as resident interest dictates.

If you have any questions regarding the Integrative Medicine Pathway, please contact the pathway director, Dr. EB Sladek (esladek@ucsd.edu).