Welcome

Overview:

The Brown Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics program is fully accredited by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics. Our program benefits from the strength of its residents and Med/Peds-trained faculty, and its continuity site, the Medicine-Pediatrics Primary Care Center, as well as long-standing, independent residency programs in Internal Medicine and in Pediatrics with highly committed department chairs and exceptional faculty in each discipline. Brown Med/Peds offers four positions per year leading to board eligibility in both medicine and pediatrics and is ACGME accredited through 2014.

The advantages of training in Med/Peds are numerous and have been appreciated since the inception of this combined discipline in 1967. Graduates are able to care for children, adults and families in a primary care setting. In addition, graduates have the opportunity to continue training in pediatrics and/or medicine subspecialties and public health disciplines, with an in-depth exposure to all age groups. The vast majority of Med/Peds graduates continue to care for children and adults in their clinical practices. Notably, almost half of Med/Peds graduates receive academic faculty appointments, reflecting the substantial growth in popularity of this discipline over the last two decades, as well as the addition of many new programs. Med/Peds graduates enjoy diverse career opportunities, owing to the depth and breadth of their training. It is indeed a rewarding and exciting experience.

Med/Peds residents and faculty at Brown are deeply involved in the ongoing operation and evaluation of the program. Ours is an integrated residency, which attempts to go beyond simply creating parallel programs in each of the two specialties. The on-site med/peds ambulatory office practice allows residents and faculty to care for adults, children and families in a single continuity setting. Founded in 1998, the clinic continues as a thriving and successful endeavor. A Med/Peds forum for residents and faculty is held twice per month. The forum offers conferences, journal club and formal sessions on a variety of topics ranging from an approach to the medical literature to discussions of patient-practitioner interactions. The faculty and residents participate in on-going curriculum development, having received state and national grants and presented national workshops on quality improvement in primary care of chronic conditions, health care transition and mental health services in primary care settings.

The core mission of the Brown University Medicine/Pediatrics Program is to offer an academically-oriented clinical program that will improve the health status of the populations in our region. The program will:

1. Provide for the collaborative training of highly-skilled clinicians in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics who are prepared to care for children and adults, individuals and families, while maintaining the depth of training and expertise in each field.

2. Create an academic environment in which to develop and conduct clinical research and advocacy efforts that reflect the unique Med/Peds perspective on care for patients across the lifespan.

3. Prepare residents for leadership roles as educators and academic clinicians in general and subspecialty disciplines of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.

Program Highlights:

• Expansion of the Med/Peds Clinic and its Electronic Medical Record. The Medicine/Pediatrics Primary Care Center has completed the 3rd expansion in its 12-year history. This new space enables a growing Med/Peds Clinic and faculty to remain campus-based for convenience of patients and residents. The MedPeds Clinic was the pilot site for Rhode Island Hospital's ambulatory electronic medical record.

• Faculty. The program's core faculty includes 6 Med/Peds-trained attendings with patient practices and precepting roles in the Medicine Pediatrics Primary Care Center, as well as two additional Med/Peds faculty members who precept exclusively. In addition, Med/Peds-trained faculty are represented in the primary faculty of both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in multiple subspecialties, are similarly well-represented within the cadre of fellows and chief residents at Rhode Island, Hasbro Children's and Women's and Infants Hospitals. The faculty has been recognized with institution-wide teaching awards, local and national grants for curriculum development, workshop and research presentations at national meetings and participates actively in national med/peds organizations.

• Residents. The residents are the heart of this program. Their commitment to their patients and to their own and their colleagues' education is appreciated by the program faculty, and has been recognized across the institution through advocacy awards for individual and program efforts, and by the categorical faculty in the selection of chief residents.

• Brown Medical Student interest in Med/Peds. In the past three years, 8 Brown medical students have matched into Medicine/Pediatrics residency programs. The Med/Peds continuity elective remains full to capacity annually.

• Med/Peds Combined Infectious Diseases Fellowship Approved. The first combined Med/Peds fellowship at Brown has been approved by the ABIM and ABP in Infectious Diseases. Dr. Jerry Larkin, Med/Peds trained Infectious Disease faculty member, is the contact person for this program. The program has two Med/Peds residency graduates currently in training.

• Community Outreach and Advocacy. The "Young Doctors Club" is a community outreach program established by Med/Peds residents with the nearby Roger Williams Middle School. More than 25 8th graders are hosted for two after school meetings per month. Residents lead multidisciplinary, hands-on discussions, which including EKG's, Pulmonary Function Testing and staining blood smears on their teachers! This exciting community youth advocacy program received the Rhode Island Public Education Foundation's Partnership Award and was a focus of the Rhode Island Hospital Founders Day Celebration. All Med/Peds residents and faculty are participating in some capacity, and the series concludes with a white-coat ceremony for participating students.

• Resident innovations. Lifelinks, the clinical information system at RIH and Hasbro Children's Hospital, has expanded to include a new web-based automated sign-out system developed and implemented in the Department of Medicine and subsequently in Pediatrics (largely due to the influence of Med/Peds cross-fertilization!). The new system is more efficient and accurate than prior systems. The capabilities of the system are expanding to include creation of progress note templates and discharge paperwork, which can be electronically transmitted to community-based providers. The Information Services Department here at RIH/Hasbro is a dynamic and responsive group, which has sought and welcomed resident input in systems development.

• Hospital Quality:
  • RIH Award. Rhode Island Hospital was named among the nation's 100 top performance improvement hospitals by Solucient, a national hospital quality assessment organization.

  • Hasbro Children's Hospital was ranked among the top 30 children's hospitals in the country based on a survey conducted by Parents magazine. Hasbro was one of only two children's hospitals in New England to be recognized in the 2009 Best Children's Hospitals listing.

• International Medicine. Program residents and faculty actively participate in multiple international medicine experiences, including formal relationships with sites in the Dominican Republic and Kenya. Med/Peds residents have taken leadership roles in the development of a global health interest group across RIH residency programs. The Med/Peds Primary Care Center has developed a refugee health clinic working with the successful Hasbro Pediatric Refugee program and providing health services to the diverse group of children and adults who relocate to Rhode Island every year with the support of the Rhode Island Foundation.