Academics

Ward Rotations

• Cardiology Wards

  This Methodist rotation offers residents two weeks on a primary cardiology team and two weeks on an advanced heart failure team. Most patients on the primary cardiology team are located in the cardiac ICU, with cases such as acute coronary syndrome, congestive heart failure, cardiogenic shock, and unstable arrhythmias. On the advanced heart failure team, residents are exposed to advanced heart failure therapies including chronic inotrope use, long-term LVAD support, and patients with recent and remote heart transplants

• General Internal Medicine Wards

  Eskenazi, Roudebush VA, and Methodist hospitals have general internal medicine ward experiences. Most teams have one resident, two interns, one 4th year medical student, and three 3rd year medical students. Hours are 7 am to 4-5 pm and teams are capped at 16 patients. Eskenazi and the VA have call days every five days, where teams can accept up to seven new patients between 7 am and 7 pm. There are no overnight calls on general wards. Eskenazi and Methodist both have options for “hospitalist” wards, a two-resident team with no interns or students. These teams allow residents to experience the day in a life of a non-teaching hospitalist service.

• Hematology Wards

  This rotation in the Simon Cancer Center at University hospital allows residents to participate in a multidisciplinary team including a hematology nurse, pharmacist, social worker, dietitian, and care manager. Common cases include lymphoma, leukemia, autoimmune hematologic disorders, and complications from sickle cell disease. Residents work two weeks of days from 7 am to 5 pm and two weeks of nights during which they work nine to ten shifts. Interns work days only.

• ICU

  ICU rotations are available at all four hospitals, offering diverse patient populations and pathologies. Rotations at the VA have call shifts every four days; call shifts are 24 hours with an additional four hours for work associated with transfer of care. Eskenazi and University Hospital utilize a night float system. Residents spend three weeks on days and one week on nights. Each resident does one 24 + 4 hour shift similar to the VA. Methodist ICU is an elective for our critical care-oriented seniors with two rotation types. They get to train alongside excellent critical care physicians one-on-one with plenty of procedures to spare. One rotation option is working days from 7am-7pm with weekends off. The other option is working nights from 6pm-7am working with admissions and cross covering the ICU and floor transfers.

• Liver Wards

  IU School of Medicine hepatologists accept complex transfer patients from all over the Midwest. Common cases include acute and chronic hepatitis, complications of cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, and acute liver failure. Residents have the opportunity to participate in emergent transplant work-ups and often see post-transplant patients as well. Residents work two weeks of days from 7 am to 5 pm and two weeks of nights during which they work nine to ten shifts. Interns work days only.

• Special Clinical Elective

  Working with a faculty mentor, the resident plans and designs a clinical elective to achieve individual goals. In the past, residents have used this opportunity to explore areas of medicine rarely encountered during typical training, including sports medicine, sleep medicine. Residents interested in primary care have also used this elective to focus on outpatient procedural skills such as placement of intrauterine devices.

Other electives

• Safety

  This required rotation includes opportunities to participate in a robust peer review process and root cause analysis, investigate near-miss or key incidents in patient safety, and work in conjunction with patient safety officers at the VA and Eskenazi. Residents participate in one half-day clinic per week focusing on transitions of care, with special interest in safe hospital and extended-care facility discharges. Projects completed by residents during this rotation have stimulated hospital-wide changes to policies and practices and generated multiple research papers.

• Research

  Working with a faculty mentor, residents on the special research elective plan and design research to achieve individualized goals such as exposure to different research types, initiation of a new research project, or the maintenance of an ongoing project. Prior research projects have included basic science research, comprehensive case reports, and reviews of clinical or research topics.

• Medical Informatics

  This elective introduces residents to the fundamentals of medical informatics as a discipline, with modular content that can support distance-based learning. Topics include terminology/standards, decision science, programming, and data storage. Residents work with medical informatics fellows and faculty who have access to one of the nation’s largest repositories of medical data.

• Kenya

  This is a two-month rotation located in Eldoret, Kenya that is designed to give residents global health experience in a low-income country. Residents join a team at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital with Kenyan medical students, residents, and other trainees. Typical cases include malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDs, as well as late and uncommon presentations of common disease including Type II diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cerebrovascular disease. Outpatient clinical experiences are available at a rural clinic where IU leads collaborative efforts to treat patients with HIV. Residents receive credit for one ward month and one elective.

• Toxicology

  The toxicology service works closely with the Poison Center to evaluate inpatient cases at five hospitals across Indianapolis. The rotation includes daily lectures from toxicology faculty and staff and the opportunity to listen to calls to the Poison Center. The faculty and staff round on selected inpatient cases based on acuity of presentation, complexity of ingestion, and educational opportunities. Prior cases have included toxin-induced seizures and coma and toxic ingestions of acetaminophen and tricyclic antidepressants.