The combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program of the Grand Rapids Medical Education and Research Center for Health Professions (formerly Spectrum Health) is designed to prepare you for a career either as a primary care physician or to provide you with a foundation for subspecialty training. We are firmly committed to training physicians who will be competent and well versed in both internal medicine and pediatrics and to be well respected within both specialties. Our philosophy of teaching emphasizes mutual respect between faculty and residents.

Our medical staff has been long recognized as outstanding in the Midwest. We have many superb general internists, pediatricians, and now eighteen internal medicine/pediatrics attendings to serve as both role models and mentors. The faculty is young, and highly trained. Many of these physicians have joined the faculty in the last decade. In addition, Grand Rapids is well represented by a broad range of subspecialists who are in private practice.

Our large medicine service is divided into teaching and non-teaching services, allowing us to choose faculty for their teaching abilities. More than 5,000 patients are admitted to the medicine service each year, which provide a broad spectrum of clinical diseases for learning. The general medicine service is composed of patients admitted by both generalists and subspecialists. Whether assigned to general medicine, critical care, cardiology, or med/peds service, you are a member of a team composed of a junior or senior resident and students and will have primary responsibility for admitting, developing diagnostic and therapeutic treatment plans, and making daily management decisions under the supervision of faculty.

Our pediatrics program has grown considerably over the past several years. We are now well represented by each of the subspecialty areas in pediatrics. You will interact with many of these staff specialists as well as a large base of community pediatricians while spending time on the general pediatrics wards. The experience is intended to guarantee a broad exposure to general pediatrics as well as to virtually every pediatric subspecialty.

Subspecialty rotations emphasize inpatient consultations along with spending time with subspecialists in their offices seeing new consultations and follow-up problems. Goals and objectives, together with assigned reading materials, are specified for each subspecialty rotation, so learning is not dependent upon the number of patients seen during the month, but augmented by this "hands-on" experience.

The four-year residency provides 24 months of general internal medicine and 24 months of pediatric medicine. Additionally, outpatient continuity of care is provided by spending one half-day per week in both internal medicine and pediatric clinic settings. There you will have primary responsibility for the care of a group of patients under the supervision of a faculty member. These faculty members are chosen for their expertise in primary care. In your 4th year of training, you may have the opportunity of having your IM clinic take place in one of our local medicine/pediatrics ambulatory offices.

All in all, our Med/Peds Residency Program is designed to be four years packed full of learning, developing sound clinical judgment and skills in an environment that is nurturing, supportive, and even fun. When you finish, you will be board eligible in both internal medicine and pediatrics and well equipped to sit for board certifying examinations in each area. Career options will be numerous including private practice, academic medicine, or to compete successfully for well respected fellowships.

For information contact:

Richard Switzer, M.D., Program Director
Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program
21 Michigan NE, Suite 525
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616)391-3776

Or contact the department in one of the following ways:

• By phone at 616-391-3776
• By emailing Pam at pamela.hritzkowin@spectrum-health.org
• By mail at:
  Pam Hritzkowin, Program Coordinator
  Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program
  21 Michigan NE, Suite 525 Grand Rapids, MI 49503

We look forward to hearing from you!