GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION

We train 119 residents in our Preliminary and Categorical Internal Medicine (IM) Residency programs in addition to training 16 Medicine/ Pediatrics residents, 15 Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine residents and 6 Neurology interns during the 20212022 academic year. In addition, the Department of Medicine sponsors 14 subspecialty fellowships. All totaled, there are 256 trainees in our programs. All the residencies and fellowships are fully accredited by the ACGME and none of them have any citations.

Program Director

Dr. Fred Zar has been the program director for over 2 decades and has trained over 800 residents in his career. He has received numerous awards from the University of Illinois College of Medicine which include a 3 time recipient of the C. Thomas Bombeck MD Award for Excellence in Medical Education, 6 time recipient of the Alpha Omega Alpha Outstanding Faculty Award and 14 time winner of a Golden Apple for Excellence in Teaching. The residents have selected Dr. Zar as the Attending of the Year award 16 times.

Associate Rogram Directors

The Internal Medicine Residency program is supported by 6 associate program directors: Drs. Christopher Fernandes, Patrick Godwin, Anne Polick, Adam Mikolajczyk, Robert Sargis, and Alfredo Mena Lora.

Dr. Christopher Fernandes completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago. After completing a chief residency he returned to UIC, where he had been a medical student, to become a hospitalist. Dr. Fernandes was promoted to associate program director in 2021 and became the director of the Hospitalist Service at UIH in 2022.

Dr. Patrick Godwin has been a faculty member since 2001 and became section chief of Hospital Medicine at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in 2008. He was promoted to associate chief of staff for quality in 2021. Dr. Godwin's interests include clinical teaching, quality improvement, patient safety, health system reform, and telehealth.

Dr. Anne Polick was an internal medicine resident and chief resident at UIC and is an academic internist teaching in the General Medicine Clinic, Clinical Decision Unit and the General Medicine Wards. She was awarded the New Attending of the Year award her first 3 years as an attending and also the Attending of the Year award on 4 occasions.

Dr. Mikolajczyk completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago where he was also a chief resident. While there he completed fellowships in Gastroenterology, Transplant Hepatology, and Medicine Education. He joined the faculty in 2018 and has since won the New Attending of the Year award his first year and the Attending of the Year award 3 times since.

Dr. Rob Sargis completed his internal medicine residency and Endocrinology fellowship at the University of Chicago. He is the director of our Physician Scientist Development Program that leverages the immense and diverse resources at UIC to create future leaders in academic medicine and has matched numerous physician-scientists into our IM Residency and subsequent fellowships at UIC.

Dr. Mena Lora was an internal medicine resident, chief resident, Infectious Diseases fellow and became the program director of our Infectious Diseases fellowship in 2020. He is an active member of our Department of Medicine Diversity and Inclusion Committee and has been instrumental in our institution’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Match Results

For 2022 Internal Medicine Residency Match, 108 DOM faculty interviewed 804 applicants to successfully fill all 46 of our PGY1 positions. Our positions were filled at the highest level of our match list since 2013. 22% of the students were from UICOM, 11% were from other Chicago schools, 60% from US programs outside of Chicago and 7% from international schools. We continue to increase our diversity. This year 49% of the Categorical Internal Medicine interns are students that are underrepresented in medicine.

Board Certification Pass Rate

In 2021, the IM Residency achieved a pass rate of 91% (32/35). Prior pass rates are shown below. We remain at a very competitive 3-year rolling pass rate of 96% (93/97) and 6-year rolling pass rate of 97% (188/193).

Year Pass/Total (%)

2016 32/32 (100%)

2017 30/30 (100%)

2018 33/34 (97%)

2019 28/29 (97%)

2020 33/33 (100%)

Fellowship Success Rate

Last year 17/20 (85%) successfully entered the subspecialty of their choice. The mean distance down their match list they went to match was 1.6, thus the average resident matches at his/her first or second choice. The last 4 years having the match rates of 26/27 (96%), 19/21 and 20/21 matching, 26/27 (96%) resulting in a 5-year success rate of 108/116 (93%).

The DOM is training clinicians in internal medicine to serve the people of Illinois and beyond. It is also essential to train the next generation in academic medicine, i.e., “finding our replacements”. The newly formed residency tracks, described on the next page, and diversity and inclusion initiatives are contributing toward this goal.

Scholarly Activities Database

The DOM developed and maintains a database of scholarly activities including all divisions. Trainees at all levels can search the database to identify potential faculty mentors and available scholarly activities to participate in. The website providing an interface to search the database also includes additional information on mentoring, starting a research project, presentation, innovations, various tools and resources, and a list of frequently asked questions.