Specialty pathway
The Specialty track provides residents the opportunity to pursue their personal academic and fellowship goals while satisfying the requirements of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Our residents practice in an 4+2 model with fully separate inpatient and outpatient rotations. Residents will engage in a longitudinal Quality Improvement project after completing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement modules and CITI training. They will collaborate within a team to better understand the Model for Improvement, identify a problem and need for improvement, and engage in a project. The residents have access subspecialty research and specialty electives during their training. They will have a faculty mentor in the chosen specialty.
Residents can choose from numerous elective experiences that will hone their clinical skills in subspecialties such as:
The Medical College of Georgia offers fellowships in: cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, pulmonary/critical care, infectious diseases, hematology/oncology, rheumatology, endocrinology, and allergy-immunology.
Hospitalist Pathway
The Hospitalist Track prepares residents for life as a hospitalist after residency and broadens their exposure of post residency options. This track allows residents to experience rotations in hospital medicine. Our residents practice in an 4+2 model with fully separate inpatient and outpatient rotations, allowing dedicated in-patient rotations. The Gray medicine rotation allows IM residents to care for a full panel of patients while supervised by IM Hospitalist faculty. Residents work for 7 consecutive days and have the following week to focus assigned board review. This rotation allows for increasing autonomy in clinical decision making, permits collaboration with the interprofessional healthcare team, and affords a greater understanding of hospital throughput. The University Hospital rotation includes working one on one with a hospitalist in a private institution, experiencing firsthand life as a private hospitalist as well as gaining knowledge about another electronic health record, Epic.
Residents in the Hospitalist Track will have faculty mentors from the Division of Hospitalist medicine. Residents will engage in a longitudinal Quality Improvement project after completing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement modules and CITI training. They will collaborate within a team to better understand the Model for Improvement, identify a problem and need for improvement, and engage in a project. They will also have the ability to create their own elective, if there is a clinical experience that they identify and feel would be valuable for their training. Residents in the Hospitalist track can choose from numerous elective experiences that will specifically grow their skills in hospital medicine, with examples of elective offerings including:
Primary Care Pathway
The Primary Care Track prepares residents for a career in out-patient primary care. For residents interested in primary care, Augusta University’s Internal Medicine program offers the opportunities needed to grow into a skilled, confident primary care physician. Our residents practice in an 4+2 model with fully separate inpatient and outpatient rotations, allowing dedicated out-patient continuity and specialty clinics. Residents in the Primary Care Track will have faculty mentors from the Division of Internal Medicine. Residents will engage in a longitudinal Quality Improvement project after completing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement modules and CITI training. They will collaborate within a team to better understand the Model for Improvement, identify a problem and need for improvement, and engage in a project. They will also have the ability to create their own elective, if there is a clinical experience that they identify and feel would be valuable for their training. Augusta University’s many other specialty clinics, including Geriatrics, Weight Management, Women’s Health, Urology, and Sports Medicine, would be opportunities for residents who feel that these experiences would benefit their training.
Residents on a primary care career track can choose from numerous elective experiences that will specifically grow their skills in ambulatory care, with examples of elective offerings including:
Medical Education Track
Our medical education track involves a focused and structured curriculum to prepare residents for careers in academic medicine, teaching, and medical education leadership. Residents in this track engage in additional teaching responsibilities, curriculum and simulation development as well as developing their own teaching methods. This specialized track aims to foster the skills and knowledge needed to become effective educators in the field of internal medicine. It's a great option for those who are passionate about sharing their knowledge and contributing to the training of future healthcare professionals.
Ultrasound Fellowship
Our ultrasound fellowship can be done concurrent with our residency. Participants are required to attend the Wednesday Fellowship conference virtually or in person on three Wednesdays each month from 1500 to 1700; if unable to attend, they must review the recorded lecture. Other commitments include 1000 scans (300 QA scans), 240 teaching hours, and 60 scanning sessions. Additionally, participants are expected to give or record four lectures. There is a focus on ultrasound in both a research project (where primary authorship is not mandatory) and a Quality Improvement Project.
Research/Internal Medicine 5-Year Combined Track
The physician research track is designed for candidates primarily interested in pursuing a career in research. It is an integrated program that combines training in research with training in clinical internal medicine. This 5 year track, where the first two to three years are dedicated to research work at 80% time, followed by two years of full-time residency training. Throughout the research block, 20% of time is dedicated to an in-clinic continuity experience. The residents are paired with a research mentor, and work and progress are reviewed regularly. Mentors are selected based on pre-identified research interests. Each mentor will provide access to research equipment and resources, professional development in the form of seminars and scientific presentation, and will help develop the resident’s skills in competing for extramural research dollars.
At the Medical College of Georgia, we are recognized worldwide for excellence in diseases of the heart and vasculature, being a top 40 NHLBI funded school and #1 in grants in Georgia from the American Heart Association. We were recognized in 2016 by the Association of Black Cardiologists as a Best Place to Train and have NIH T32 and AHA SFRN training grants to support our trainees. Core expertise in this area include cardiovascular consequences of obesity, metabolic disease and cancer, vascular genomics and epigenetics, inflammation as a mechanism of cardiovascular disease, and mechanisms of racial disparities in hypertension. Aspiring cardiologists will particularly benefit from the unique training opportunities offered by this program.
Preliminary Medicine 1 Year Residency Track
This track is for medical graduates desiring strong internal medicine training prior to assuming a residency in specialties such as neurology, dermatology, radiology, etc. The one year internship is rich in inpatient general medicine, cardiology, nephrology, hematology/oncology and critical care, and establishes key competencies in care of very ill patients that will be of great value during a future career in a variety of specialties.
| Resident Sample Schedule | | | Intern Sample Schedule | ||
| 4 weeks | Night Float | | | 4 weeks | AU Wards |
| 2 weeks | Vacation/Ambulatory | | | 2 weeks | Infectious Disease |
| 4 weeks | AU Hospitalist | | | 4 weeks | Heme/Onc |
| 2 weeks | Elective | | | 2 weeks | Ambulatory/Vacation |
| 4 weeks | University Hospital | | | 4 weeks | AU MICU |
| 2 weeks | Elective | | | 2 weeks | Nephrology |
| 4 weeks | AU CCU | | | 4 weeks | AU Wards |
| 2 weeks | Emergency Medicine | | | 2 weeks | Pulm/CF Consults |
| Christmas Week | AU Wards | | | Christmas Week | Vacation |
| New Year's Week | Vacation | | | New Year's Week | AU MICU |
| 4 weeks | Nephrology | | | 4 weeks | VA Wards |
| 2 weeks | Medical Economics | | | 2 weeks | Elective |
| 4 weeks | Elective | | | 4 weeks | AU Cardiology |
| 2 weeks | Elective | | | 2 weeks | Ambulatory/Vacation |
| 4 weeks | VA Wards | | | 4 weeks | Night Float |
| 2 weeks | Infectious Disease | | | 2 weeks | Elective |
| 4 weeks | AU MICU | | | 4 weeks | VA Wards |
| 2 weeks | Vacation/Ambulatory | | | 2 weeks | Vacation/Ambulatory |
| 4 weeks | AU Hospitalist | | | 4 weeks | AU Cardiology |
| 1 week | Vacation | | | 1 week | AU Cardiology |
