Transitional Year Residency Program

Welcome to the UPMC Medical Education Transitional Year Residency program. We are based at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s flagship Montefiore and Presbyterian hospitals on the University of Pittsburgh medical campus. We offer a rigorous, yet flexible, training experience where you will be challenged and prepared for your future medical career. In my role as program director I have the unique opportunity to celebrate the excitement and potential that this year holds for each of our residents. Through close mentoring our program promotes both the personal and professional growth of our residents.As you begin the patient care responsibilities you have long anticipated, where you choose to begin this journey – this crucial year of training for you as a doctor – can make all the difference. We hope that you find our site informational and also view the website of our primary sponsoring program to get a better idea of how wonderful a place Pittsburgh is to train and live. We pride ourselves in having developed a supportive program and I personally have the greatest expectations for the current and future successes of our Transitional year residents who train here at UPMC Medical Education.

     ~ Julie B. McCausland, MD, MS, FACEP

Our Commitment

We provide our Transitional Year residents with a broad-based, flexible post-graduate year where they can shape their initial medical careers and form a strong base in both clinical medicine and academics, including research. We aim to train skilled and empathic residents who will take their initial experiences as a physician and continue to grow personally and professionally through the next stage of their postgraduate training.

Program Strengths

  • Our Patients – the reason we are here and have this opportunity to learn and teach
  • Our Residents – the chance to work with and learn from a diverse group of colleagues while making life-long friends
  • Our Faculty – ensure a strong clinical education on both medical and surgical rotations and role-model compassionate patient care
  • Our Departments – Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Ophthalmology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Radiology

Strengths: Clinical training

  • Cutting edge knowledge translation at the bedside and through daily noon lectures, weekly Grand Rounds and Intern report, and Monthly Morbidity and Mortality, Quality Improvement/Patient Safety, and Chief of Medicine conferences.
  • Emphasis on Evidence-Based Medicine and High-Value Care
  • Close mentoring by program director to discuss and assess career development, professional and personal goals
  • Develop UPMC mentors and access relevant electives to enhance future performance
  • Opportunities to participate in research projects
  • Advanced EMR and integrated hospital technology systems, one of the most wired hospital systems in the country with fully electronic documentation, lab and radiographic services
  • Access to extensive online library and Medical Knowledge Learning Modules for personalized knowledge acquisition

Innovative Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI) Curriculum and Integration into Training

Presenting PSQI project at Medicine department-wide interdisciplinary Morbidity and Mortality conference

  • Each TY resident completes a mentored PSQI project based on their own clinical case during their ambulatory block during which they have academic time to complete the project.
  • Residents learn about PSQI through online modules and a QI lecture early in the year and using a root cause analysis tool, works with the TY program director and with a medical resource librarian to develop their case, search the PSQI literature and share their interventions at a monthly education meeting.
  • This project has resulted in Morbidity and Mortality presentations, shared curricula with other departments such as surgery and medicine, changes to the clinical care of patients at UPMC and the training of residents and development of new curricula for clinical education in the TY program.

Transitional Year/Radiology, and Transitional Year/PM&R Training Tracks

  • To establish continuity in resident training at UPMC, tracks with both the UPMC Medical Education Radiology, and PM&R advanced programs exist for those who match to these programs.
  • Applicants have the opportunity to interview once with their UPMC advanced program and then are eligible to apply to the general TY program as well as the respective TY/Radiology or TY/PM&R track.
  • Tracks allow residents to start research, mentoring and other clinical opportunities early in training here at UPMC along with the benefit of knowing the system at the start of PGY-2 training
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