Letter from the Program Director

For over 45 years our Internal Medicine Residency Program has been training highly qualified and successful physicians, preparing them to excel in primary care, in subspecialty fellowships, and as hospitalists. Our goal is simple: to provide the best clinical training in the most supportive environment possible. We strive to provide the perfect balance between independence and supervision as well as between education and workload. Our commitment to seeking and incorporating feedback from our residents as well as a continuous process of self-improvement has allowed us to build one of the top clinical Internal Medicine Residency programs in the country.

Innovations instituted at the UMass IM program include our predictable and controlled “drip” admission system; our 4+1 inpatient/outpatient rotation schedule, which allowed us to build “firm-based” resident communities with designated faculty educators and mentors; and a recent decrease in the intern cap to 8 patients.  Curricular innovations include an advanced Quality Improvement Curriculum, which includes LEAN training and independent resident QI projects;  a supportive and comprehensive Wellness Curriculum; and training in Goals of Care discussions and Point of Care Ultra Sound (POCUS). Finally, we are very excited about our new Primary Care Residency Track which will start in AY20-21. These innovations have put our program on the cutting edge of residency training and allow us to continue to achieve our goals of clinical excellence and resident well-being. 

Led by our tertiary care University Hospital, and supported by Memorial Hospital, a city-based hospital, and Milford Hospital, a community-based hospital, our residents care for and manage a wide diversity of patients. We are a regional leader in liver, kidney, and bone marrow transplants, along with cardiac disease and heart failure, pulmonary disease, primary care, and critical care (to name just a few.) Hence the University hospital experience gives our residents the opportunity to manage some of the most complex and “sickest” patients in the Northeast. Our urban and community hospital rotations complement time at the University hospital by providing residents with additional patient populations as well as excellent educators across the spectrum of care. The resident ambulatory experience is similarly diverse and allows our trainees to develop long term relationships with both patients and faculty.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of our Internal Medicine training program, we will continue our efforts to be at the forefront of Internal Medicine training.  Thank you for visiting our website. If you would like to become part of our residency family, and experience one of the most diverse, well-rounded, and clinically excellent Internal Medicine Residency Programs, I encourage you to apply.

Sincerely, 

Scott Kopec, MD    Department of Medicine    Program Director    Internal Medicine Residency Program