Our wide variety of Internal Medicine conferences cover inpatient and outpatient medicine, including both rare and common diseases. The Overholt Auditorium has a complete array of multi-media tools to enhance presentation and learning. These include PowerPoint, digital video projection capability (live camera, radiology projection, and VCR for ECHO), slide projectors, overhead projector and dry-erase boards. Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation offers complimentary meals at each morning and noon teaching conference. All house staff are able to attend all conferences unless there is a patient in need of immediate care.
"If you want to get up every morning excited about work, then Gundersen Lutheran is the residency program for you. Great teaching, great facilities, and fun people to work with!" - Robert Kim, former Internal Medicine Resident, Fellow in Pulmonary/Critical Care at UW-Madison
Teaching Rounds — This is the cornerstone of our resident education. It runs from 7:20 to 8 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Attendance is expected for all internal medicine residents, other residents, students on internal medicine rotations and selected staff. The chief resident or GM attending physician moderates a case in a highly interactive fashion. Cases range from "bread and butter" internal medicine where the fine points of management are reviewed, to the rare cases where complete differential diagnosis, test selection and treatment methods are discussed.
Discussion of diagnosis and management is done in a way that maximizes resident learning in a non-threatening environment. Residents often help present the case and summarize the main learning points at the end. All teaching is accomplished with an emphasis on evidence-based and cost-effective medicine principles.
"This is a program that combines excellent staff dedicated to teaching, the expertise of specialists, and a diverse patient population to achieve a friendly and sound learning environment. Truly a content time of life. - Joel Burnet, former Internal Medicine Resident
Board Review Class - On Wednesday mornings a small group board review class is held using MedStudy as a guide. Rachel Hawker, Associate Program Director, leads this class that emphasizes the approach to difficult questions and the "hot points" that will be seen on the ABIM exam. All graduating classes that have participated in this three year class have maintained a 100% pass rate on the ABIM exam.
Noon Conference — These conferences are held each weekday. Various specialty topics, resident presentations, and outside distinguished speakers comprise this most beneficial conference curriculum. This venue is also the setting for Medical Grand Rounds. Special attention at this conference is provided in the beginning of the academic year for our new residents. Several departments present "Emergency" clinical situations for their particular specialty, e.g. "Oncology Emergencies" or "ENT Emergencies."
Subspecialty Teaching Conference — Residents and students who are on subspecialty rotations (Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Neurology and Rheumatology) gather every weekday from 8:15-9:00 a.m. for this conference. Each of the subspecialists rotate through to present interesting teaching cases in their area of expertise.
"Gundersen Lutheran provided me with ample opportunities to grow and develop not only as a physician, but as a whole person. The program will push you to excel and become the best doctor that you can be" - Scott Sprtel, former Internal Medicine Resident
Journal Club — This is a monthly resident-led, evidenced-based review of current journal articles. Residents choose journal articles relevant to the practice of internal medicine. Statistics are reviewed with one of our biostatisticians in an effort to learn statistical methodology and to judge the relative strengths and weaknesses of the selected articles.
Intern Ethics Seminar — This is a monthly discussion led by Bernard Hammes, Medical Humanities/Ethics, along with various staff. First year residents meet and discuss ethics in a case-based format. Topics are often driven by current clinical experiences in an effort to help residents handle difficult ethical issues that they will face during the remainder of their careers.
Other Conferences — Numerous other conferences occur throughout the hospital and clinic covering a wide variety of medical topics. Residents are always invited and encouraged to attend.