Our Program’s Strengths

We are committed to providing our residents with the most balanced and comprehensive medical training available.

Med-Peds–Trained Teaching Faculty
We have an increasing number of Med-Peds– trained generalist and specialist faculty members throughout the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health System. Our Med-Peds faculty and fellows provide mentorship and teaching to our residents in a variety of settings.

Excellent Health Care System
UPMC hospitals are consistently nationally ranked for patient care and innovations in medicine.

 Balance of Experiences in Medicine and Pediatrics
Our program combines experiences from the categorical medicine and pediatrics programs with equivalent and outstanding national reputations. There are no public hospitals in the city of Pittsburgh, so our residents care for patients of all backgrounds regardless of payer status at all of our training sites.

Combined Med-Peds Continuity Clinic
In 2008, a combined med-peds clinic was established in nearby Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. This clinic serves as the primary ambulatory training site for all med-peds residents. We have a robust adult and pediatric patient base and our residents see an equivalent number of patients in each category in their continuity clinic over the course of the year.

Diverse Training Experiences
Our med-peds residents rotate through four hospitals in a major academic medical center and have a weekly community-based clinic with a diverse patient population. By training in a variety of health care settings, our residents are able to pursue primary care med-peds or competitive subspecialty fellowships.

Transitional Care Clinical Program
Dr. Kristen Ehrenberger, a 2020 Internal Medicine and Pediatrics graduate, is clinical director of a transitional care clinical program for adolescents and adults with pediatric onset medical conditions. This program provides comprehensive and coordinated care for patients who have chronic medical conditions and are transitioning from pediatrics to adult-oriented health care. The program is located in the General Internal Medicine Clinic at UPMC Montefiore and is available as an elective experience for our med-peds residents.

Opportunities to Provide Health Care to International and Underserved Populations
We encourage interested residents to participate in global health experiences. Our med-peds residents have participated in many electives focusing on health care for underserved populations in areas including Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Guatemala, and the Indian Health Service in Arizona. In addition, UPMC Presbyterian has developed the Global Health and Underserved Populations Track to provide valuable education and mentorship in this important area. For residents interested in Spanish-speaking populations, Dr. Diego Chaves-Gnecco, one of our general pediatricians, operates a bilingual Salud Para Niños pediatrics clinic through the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Our program also has a relationship with Operation Safety Net, the premier street medicine program in the world.

Health Policy and Advocacy
Our internal medicine and pediatrics programs have created career-oriented pathways focusing on health policy and advocacy. Monthly, the generalist and global health tracks of the Internal Medicine residency program host a health policy journal club. An elective in health policy may also be taken. Our pediatrics residency program has the CORE (Community Oriented Residency Education) program, an area of concentration in the pediatric training program that aims to train leaders in community health and child advocacy. Med-Peds residents are welcome and highly encouraged to fully join these educational opportunities if interested.

Medical Education
Our med-peds program and the Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics are proud to carry on the strong tradition of medical education at UPMC. Not only are residents taught by outstanding medical educators, but they too are trained to be the next generation of outstanding teachers. Throughout the year, med-peds residents, with the help of their mentors, set goals to improve their skill set in Physician as Teacher. The core programs annually offer retreats during which teaching skills are reviewed and developed. The Pediatrics Residency has a medical education track called PRIME (Pediatric Residents Interested in Medical Education) which med-peds residents have been involved in since its inception. The Internal Medicine Residency offers a medical education certificate to medicine and med-peds residents, a program lead by Dr. Allie Dakroub, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics APD.

Research and Scholarly Activities
Many residents —not just those planning to pursue fellowships for subspecialty careers—come to residency with an interest in basic or clinical research as part of their training. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is home to a number of world-class scientists engaged in a broad spectrum of disciplines, including structural biology, drug discovery and design, immunology, neuroscience, organ and tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, cancer diagnostics, bioinformatics and computational biology, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and medical device development. In addition, UPMC is a nationally recognized leader in clinical and translational research in nearly every subspecialty field. Our program encourages residents to take advantage of the many world-class technical and faculty resources available at our institution. Additionally, residents may join the internal medicine research track which is co-directed by Dr. Deanna Wilson, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics physician researcher.

Leadership and Discovery Program (LEAD)
The LEAD program was implemented in 2012 as a formal component of our Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. It was designed in response to a desire in our residents for a structured curriculum for them to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to design and implement academic projects. Its objective is to enhance resident opportunities for discovery and future leadership in the field of medicine through a structured, three-year program to augment research, develop critical appraisal skills, and support self-directed scholarship in a wide variety of scholarly tracks. By fostering the skills necessary to carry out a scholarly project, residents are expected by the end of their third year of training to present their project at a local, regional, or national meeting or in a peer-reviewed journal. Click here to read more about the LEAD program.

Med-Peds Scholarly Projects
All residents participate in a mentored-independent scholarly project. The University of Pittsburgh Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Programs continually provide support, both in terms of finances and rotation coverage, for residents to present their work at local, national, and international conferences. We are proud that annually our residents present their scholarly work at national general academic and subspecialty conferences.

Specific Med-Peds Activities
Our program has fostered specific academic opportunities that provide residents with a sense of home and with unique learning opportunities. We hold a biweekly med-peds noon conference, and we have a journal club that meets once a month in a faculty member or resident’s home. During the pandemic we have flexed to virtual or hybrid with virtual – in person modes to ensure the safety and education of our residents and faculty.

Med-Peds Workshops
Twice yearly, our entire program gets coverage to meet for a half-day workshop in which we discuss topics that are relevant to our med-peds residents. Past workshops have focused on complementary and alternative medicine, health policy and advocacy, women’s health across the age span, transitional care, technology in medicine (“Health–There is an App for that”), poverty and health care, palliative care across the age spectrum, and professional development in med-peds.

Med-Peds Resident Portal Web Site
We utilize MedHub to house all important documents for our residents. It includes rotation and clinic schedules, requirements by year (including procedure requirements), up-to-date descriptions of all the major hospital rotations, online evaluation forms, med-peds noon conference materials, monthly journal club articles, and useful hospital documents.