Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a goal-directed ultrasound exam performed by a healthcare provider to answer a specific question or guide performance of an invasive procedure at the bedside. The Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) support the integration of POCUS into graduate medical education (GME).Emergency medicine (EM) [...]

Background: Observation units are a growing destination for many patients with a variety of diagnoses.  The elderly represent a large part of the observation population, which will likely grow as baby-boomers age.  Those of advanced age can have different medical and social needs than their younger cohort, so understanding their prevalence and expected outcomes in [...]

Background: The role of the clerkship director (CD) in Internal Medicine (IM) has been increasingly recognized and valued as a ‘legitimate pathway towards academic advancement. We hypothesized that salary support for the IM CD has lagged behind the recommended 0.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) put forth by Pangaro and colleagues. Methods: In 2016, Clerkship Directors in [...]

Background: Preliminary data from the 2018 Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) survey showed that in about 50% of both academic and community medical centers, medical students rotate directly with attendings (1). This number has increased by 400% from 2010, the last year for which data is available (2). In our institution, hospital medicine (HM) [...]

Background: Participation in scholarly activities and mentorship is a pillar in academic medicine for innovation and career advancement, however, many early career APPs do not feel well prepared to participate in projects. To guide the development of support programs, this study identified perceived benefits and barriers to participating in academic advancement and scholarly projects, as [...]

Background: While academic hospital medicine (HM) has experienced rapid growth, criteria for promotion, especially regarding scholarship, lack data to inform practice. We sought to describe the characteristics and scholarly progression of academic hospitalists who have been promoted to full professor (FP). Methods: We identified FP HM faculty of all medical schools ranked for research by [...]

Background: Diagnostic consultations between the General Internal Medicine (GIM) departments and specialty departments are becoming increasingly important to achieve team-based diagnosis and diagnostic excellence, but there have been limited studies on the appropriateness of the GIM diagnostic consultations with specialty departments. We conducted this study to clarify the appropriateness of diagnostic consultations from the GIM [...]

Background: Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) significantly augments physical exam and improves medical management, and many medical schools across the United States are implementing undergraduate POCUS curricula. As a result, internal medicine (IM) residency programs have incoming interns with varying levels of POCUS knowledge and skill. We administered a needs assessment questionnaire to incoming interns [...]

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) sets strict guidelines governing work hours for internal medicine trainees, not to exceed 80 hours per week. Though many programs grapple with achieving adherence, few published studies report successful changes to meet these limits. Previous efforts at our institution to reduce patient census on the teaching [...]

Background: Residents in Internal Medicine have traditionally taken electives that prepare or position them well for fellowships. Another purpose of elective time during residency is to expose the learner to career opportunities. As Hospital Medicine grows as a specialty, more training programs are offering electives for residents in this field. However, most elective descriptions that [...]