Pathway Video
Our Mission
To provide outstanding training to residents pursuing careers as practitioners, educators, and leaders in hospital medicine
Why Hospital Medicine
The University of California San Diego is an emerging leader in the field of hospital medicine. The Hospital Medicine Pathway is designed to enhance the residency experience with relevant and unique inpatient training, hospital-medicine focused didactics, participation in hospital medicine grand rounds and journal clubs, mentorship, and experiences in quality improvement. This curriculum will be concordant with the principles of the Hospital Medicine Core competencies adopted by the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Top Left: Dr. Ali Farkhondepour, Pathway Director. Top Right: UCSD Medical Center in La Jolla, location of our dedicated hospital medicine rotations for those in the pathway. Bottom: Wards teach team at the VA San Diego Medical Center with attending, senior resident, intern, medical student, and pharmacist pictured.
Our Pathway Experience
The flexibility of the pathway allows residents to enter the pathway at the beginning of the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year. All residents entering the pathway are assigned a faculty mentor who is a member of the Division of Hospital Medicine with the goal of providing individual career guidance and mentorship during residency. Residents have unique opportunities to attend hospital medicine grand rounds, present a hospital-medicine focused journal club, and receive paid membership and conference registration for the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM). Additional unique subspecialty rotations relevant to hospitalists include 2-weeks of Neuro Stroke and 2-weeks of Neuro-Critical Care.
During the PGY-3 year, pathway residents rotate together on a 4-week “Junior Hospitalist” block at Jacobs. Residents rotate on a high-acuity wards team at Jacobs for 2 weeks, the Jacobs medicine admitting and consulting service for 1 week, and the Jacobs palliative care medicine service for 1 week. During the 4-week block, there are twice-weekly hospital medicine-focused didactics on topics including patient safety, billing and coding, business of hospital medicine, oncologic emergencies, inpatient medical consultation, medical ethics, etc. The “Junior Hospitalist” block also includes weekly hands-on point-of-care ultrasound bedside scanning to further develop each resident’s ultrasound skills.
During the PGY-3 year, pathway residents also rotate together on a 2-week “Professional Development” block. This block includes unique opportunities to rotate with Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Speech Therapy. The block also incorporates high-yield didactics and trips to long-term acute care and skilled nursing facilities in San Diego.
Big Highlights!
- Flexibility to enter the pathway at the start of PGY-2 or PGY-3 year
- Mentorship with an academic hospitalist from day 1 of entering the pathway
- High-yield, hospital-medicine focused didactics
- Weekly hands-on, point-of-care ultrasound rounds
- 4-week “Junior Hospitalist” block during PGY-3 year
- 2-week “Professional Development” block during PGY-3 year
- Unique subspecialty rotations: 2-weeks of Neuro Stroke and 2-weeks of Neuro Critical Care
- Opportunity to attend monthly hospital medicine grand rounds
- Participation in hospital medicine journal club
Thanks for checking us out! We hope you enjoy learning more about our program and consider joining our UCSD Internal Medicine family!