Medicine
- Internal Medicine Residency Program
- Department of Medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
Bruce Luxon, MD, Chair
The practice of medicine requires a thorough scientific background in the basic sciences, experience in approaching the patient to recognize clinical phenomena, and an understanding of and sympathy for a patient’s social, economic, and personal issues. The Department of Medicine’s program meets these requirements and educates medical students in these fundamental areas. Programs consist of didactic lectures, group conferences, panel discussions, clinics, seminars, inpatient experiences, laboratory periods, demonstrations, and carefully graded and supervised ambulatory care clerkships to teach the student responsibility for the care of patients.
During the first year, Department of Medicine members direct the cardiopulmonary module and assist basic science faculty in a number of correlated clinics, didactic sessions, and problem-based learning exercises to demonstrate that their thorough understanding of basic science is a prerequisite to the solution of clinical problems.
In the second year, the Department of Medicine is responsible for the course in Physical Diagnosis, Lab Medicine, and the Clinical Skills Primer course. This course includes instruction in laboratory diagnosis and provides the student with information necessary for an accurate approach to clinical problems. Patients are presented, studied, and discussed in detail with various faculty members.
During the third year, each student has a 12-week clerkship in Medicine. Four weeks of this clerkship are spent at Georgetown University Hospital, four weeks at a University-affiliated hospital, and four weeks at an ambulatory site. This clerkship emphasizes the methods used in acquiring clinical and laboratory information necessary for accurate diagnoses and for therapeutic plans. Continuing emphasis is placed on the application of basic science, clinical medicine, and social and ethical aspects of clinical problems. Full-time and clinical faculty provide supervision.
During the fourth year, each student has a four-week advanced clinical clerkship in Medicine, emphasizing the management of clinical problems at one of the affiliated hospitals or at Georgetown University Hospital. During the clerkship, the fourth-year medical student performs in the capacity of a junior house officer/intern under the supervision of a resident and the attending physician. For the senior student’s elective periods, the Department of Medicine offers research and clinical activities at Georgetown or the affiliated hospitals in General Medicine; Cardiology; Clinical Pharmacology; Dermatology; Endocrinology and Metabolism; Gastroenterology; Hematology/Oncology; Infectious Diseases; Nephrology and Hypertension; Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; and Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy. Approximately one-half of fourth year students rotate through divisions of the Department of Medicine and offices of practicing clinical faculty and various clinics.
Broad experience in clinical medicine is provided to students through clerkship opportunities that the Department of Medicine offers at Georgetown University Hospital and affiliated hospitals, including Arlington Hospital, Fairfax Hospital, Veterans Affairs Medical Center,Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center.
The house staff at Georgetown University Hospital and the affiliated hospitals is superior, and residents are appointed not only for their clinical ability but also for their interest in teaching. Full-time and clinical faculty members of the Department of Medicine are actively involved in teaching, research, and clinical activities at Georgetown and affiliated hospitals.
The Department of Medicine is dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of Internal Medicine which will serve as an important component of their chosen specialty, irrespective of the field.