Upmc medical education program internal medicine residency

UPMC Community Osteopathic is home to an ACGME-approved Internal Medicine Program that has combined the legacy AOA accredited program into an already existing ACGME program. The program has achieved initial accreditation by the ACGME for Osteopathic Recognition and currently has a full complement.

Our Mission

The Internal Medicine Residency Program is sponsored by the Department of Internal Medicine at UPMC. Our mission is to train and develop qualified physicians to practice the specialty of Internal Medicine as competent, caring primary care physicians in the ambulatory, hospital and nursing home settings. Our mission includes preparing residents to evolve as a practitioner and explore a variety of specialties that will help shape your medical career. The Department of Internal Medicine is dedicated to providing the resident a program of the highest quality in clinical training and academics.

About the Program

The UPMC Community Osteopathic Internal Medicine Residency curriculum provides numerous instructional methods to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the seven core. Each resident will participate in all areas of the curriculum to develop the competencies. The resident will demonstrate to the satisfaction of the residency faculty that he/she is competent in all seven core areas. Residents will be evaluated on their Core Competencies annually using peer as well as faculty evaluators. This process will be completed using the Medical Professionals Performance System.

Application Requirements

To be considered for the Osteopathic Internal Medicine Residency Program, you must apply through Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). You will be contacted by phone or email to schedule your interview, which will occur during your senior year between September and November.

We encourage all prospective internal medicine residents to consider a clerkship at UPMC Community Osteopathic. The clerkship program allows our staff to get to know you and learn about your strengths, weaknesses, motivations and suitability for residency.

Contact

Caitlin Wilkinson
Program Coordinator
Phone: 717-231-8532

Sree Reddethu
Program Coordinator
Phone: 717-657-7533

Additional Resources

  • Resident & Fellow Salary & Benefits
  • Learn More About Our Service Lines
  • Living and Working in Central Pa.
  • Application for Clinical Rotation

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UPMC Community Osteopathic

Thank you for considering the graduate medical education programs at UPMC Lititz.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program at UPMC Lititz is accredited by ACGME and has received Osteopathic Recognition. The objective of the Program is to foster clinical and academic excellence in physicians. The residency training program places major emphasis on both inpatient and ambulatory settings. Graduates of our program are highly qualified for the practice of Internal Medicine or, for further training in fellowship.

Contact Us

Dawn Steffy
GME Academic Manager, UPMC Lititz
Phone: 717-625-5668

Upmc medical education program internal medicine residency

Upmc medical education program internal medicine residency

UPMC Lititz

Night Medicine and Primary Care Office are each conducted in 2-week segments.

Residents complete at least one rotation in each of the major subspecialties of internal medicine, with additional opportunity to repeat the same rotation in a different year as schedule permits.

Curriculum is subject to change. Individual curricula may vary from the above template.

In addition to Teaching Rounds, residency conferences include:

  • Morning Report
  • Grand Rounds
  • Noon Conference
  • PGY-3 led Morbidity and Mortality Conference (with discussion of root cause analysis)
  • Best Cases Conference

Internal Medicine Electives

  • Addiction Medicine (Mercy/Presbyterian, R2-R3 only) 
  • Admit/Medical Consultation 
  • Cardiology  
  • Endocrinology 
  • Gastroenterology 
  • Infectious Diseases  
  • Hematology/Oncology (Mercy/Hillman Cancer Center) 
  • Nephrology 
  • Neurology 
  • Primary Care Office (private office)  
  • Pulmonary Diseases  
  • Research
  • Rheumatology  
  • Toxicology (Mercy/Presbyterian, R2-R3 only) 

Additional non-internal medicine electives may also be requested.

What our Residents are saying about their rotations — excerpts from 2020-2021 academic year:

Admit/Medical Consultation

Dr. Conroy was an effective preceptor on this rotation. I staffed a number of admissions and consults with her. She always had time to add a teaching point to each case. In addition, she would take the time to review the consult prior to assigning it to the residents and would screen out (certain) consults which was appreciated.

Dr. Foust was great to work with, allowed me to make my own medical decisions, and was readily available when needed. She teaches relevant and important information.

Ambulatory Medicine

Dr. Kiazand is approachable and an excellent faculty member. I appreciated her providing us with positive reinforcement and engaging us in discussions. She clearly puts a lot of effort into her work and is passionate about it.

Dr. Khan is a wonderful attending. She provides dedicated lectures that are geared toward enhancing the ambulatory rotation, such as lectures on the MSK exam and motivational interviewing that help improve the residents’ history-taking and physical exam skills. She is kind, approachable, and genuinely cares about the residents.

Dr. Wegrecki is great to work with. She challenges residents to think critically and gives them enough space to work out a plan on their own.

Cardiology

Dr. Ward challenges residents to think and make management plans independently. This mental exercise is aimed at elevating the level of clinical decision-making. I found that it bolstered my confidence as well as my drive to study more. I appreciate his style of teaching.

Dr. Fallert has so much knowledge to offer. He is very approachable and takes the time to answer all questions effectively so there is no confusion left. He teaches you to be quick and extract all the necessary information in a short period of time.

Dr. Adhar is a knowledgeable cardiologist with a knack for explaining difficult to understand concepts in a simple way. He is a great teacher.

Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Abdulmajeed was an excellent role model and a thoughtful intensivist and teacher. He was approachable, showed interest in the residents and our learning, and modeled excellent clinical judgment. He also modeled how to be a leader of an ICU team.

Dr. Bishop was great to round with, taught extensively during rounds, but still made sure that we had plenty of time for all out duties/didactics. Those teaching sessions also showed that he also continues to learn and has a passion for it, which was motivation for me to go and continue to read about the topic as well.

Dr. Butcher always strives to provide the highest quality of care for his patients. He was extremely patient with the interns and taught extensively throughout rounds. He was also very approachable and easy to communicate with.

Dr. Andersen was a phenomenal attending. She was extremely enthusiastic about teaching and provided great feedback. She was very approachable and understanding of the challenges faced by residents. She is very intelligent and practices evidence-based medicine. Overall, my entire ICU experience and medical knowledge was significantly enhanced by her guidance.

Dr. Siedsma spent a great amount of time to teach and explain multiple topics during this rotation, including what to look out for in brain imaging, different IVFs and their profiles, ventilator mechanics, and so much more. Time spent during rounds greatly improved my knowledge of critical care and will help even as I continue on medicine floors.

I loved how Dr. Preus discussed patients, always incorporated evidence-based medicine and discussed research trials. I always looked the trials up when I would get home.

Dr. Steinberg is great to work with. I love doing ICU with her because of the opportunity to learn so much about neurocritical care from her, especially about brain imaging.

Dr. Rudd was an exceptional preceptor. She held adapted rounds to allow the team to round on the most sick patients as a group for better learning, and then split into two groups to keep the duration of rounds manageable. There was ample teaching on rounds, and she also took the time to teach ventilator lectures in the afternoons.

Endocrinology

Dr. Selk was fantastic to work with! She taught a lot, had great energy and focused on board-relevant topics that we may not necessarily see in clinic or inpatient in a short period of time. We covered a lot of Endocrine beyond thyroid and diabetes — well into the different technological advances being made (for example, pump management) and also into reproductive topics. I appreciate the teaching and the feedback and personally really enjoyed working with her.

Dr. Willard was kind and patient. She always made time to teach.

Dr. Pinkhasova was very enthusiastic about teaching. She provided lots of useful resources. She was very approachable with questions, great to work with and to learn from. I really like her way of rounding and that she gave us a lot of autonomy.

Gastroenterology

Working with Dr. Pezzone in his GI clinic and during inpatient consults was a pleasure. He displays a caring and professional attitude towards patients and is clearly very interested in teaching residents. I enjoyed his GI practice and learned a lot from his evidence-based medicine approach. He provided me with relevant articles during our rotation and with useful feedback.

Working with Dr. Chopra was great! He is a great clinician, and I really learned a lot from his GI knowledge and evidence-based medicine practice. He loves to teach residents and it shows.

Geriatrics

Dr. Tadic’s Geriatrics rotation is a fantastic learning experience. Dr. Tadic not only taught evidence-based medicine, but he also taught thoughtful medicine. He provided learning not only through patients but also through multiple modules for self-based learning. In addition to Geriatrics, Dr. Tadic also took the time to speak with me about my career and future plans. I felt as though he invested time in me.

Dr. Tadic is an amazing attending and always takes time to teach his residents. He ensures that we have a strong foundation in basic science and pharmacology as these affect a very vulnerable elderly population. I especially enjoyed our interactions and the great learning environment created by him.

General Internal Medicine

Dr. Philbin provided an excellent learning environment. During the course of this rotation, I was able to increase my clinical understanding and expand on my knowledge not only in practical medical skills but also in the social aspects of a patient’s life that I had not thought about prior to this rotation. Dr. Philbin modeled professionalism and what being a physician is supposed to be about. He truly cares for all his patients and is a strong advocate for the best care for them.

Dr. Carrington is an excellent preceptor to work with. Her practice style prevents you from anchoring, and you must always be aware of other differentials and investigate if warranted. She is also pleasant and easy to work with.

Dr. Harvey was approachable and helped me a lot with organizing my presentations during rounds, and his guidance is helping me to this day when I present on rounds. I learned how to properly structure my arguments when presenting differential diagnosis. He is genuinely a nice person and a pleasure to work with.

Dr. K. Patel was great to work with. He gives you the freedom as a senior to take care of the patients the way you would like to practice. He offers lots of teaching about billing, and about SNF vs. personal care home vs. assisted living. I also learned a lot about disposition and what information is required to have a safe discharge.

Dr. M. Khan was a great attending to work with. He is very detail-oriented and he focuses from day one on the patient’s disposition, which ultimately makes discharge planning easier. He is also very involved in bedside teaching which was especially helpful to my intern. He played a big role in helping us to prepare for our teaching rounds, including going personally with us to a radiologist for better interpretation of radiology findings for our case which led to a great learning experience for all.

I enjoyed working with Dr. Kondaveeti. I like his patient management style and the way he leads rounds. He is easy to get along with and very approachable. He provided our team with an appropriate amount of autonomy which as a senior I greatly appreciate. He is very focused on resident learning and bedside teaching, often quoting and printing out articles for us specific to our patient discussion. He is clearly very dedicated to our residency program and resident betterment.

Dr. Abhishek is a wonderful attending! He is extremely knowledgeable and is always willing to teach both during and after rounds.

Dr. Jhamb was pleasant to work with. He was approachable and efficient. He took my suggestions into consideration and made me feel like a valued part of the team.

Dr. Hussain is one of my favorite hospitalists to work with. He is thorough, cares about his patients, is invested in teaching, and is kind and approachable. He looks for ways he can improve and gives helpful feedback to residents. He worked well with the interdisciplinary team, including the pharmacist. He also has a great attitude that extends to the rest of the team.

Hematology/Oncology

The Heme/Onc rotation is fantastic. Dr. Yee and Dr. Krauze were both enthusiastic about teaching and were able to answer any and all questions I had effectively. My time at Hillman was also a great experience; it provided a unique perspective and diverse clinical experience.

I appreciated how Dr. Yee taught how to frame obtaining relevant history (what to look for) and then how to frame ONC management in terms of staging. That has helped me specifically in how I think about pathophysiology and management.

Dr. Krauze was very approachable and always spent extra time discussing pathophysiology and patient care/management, and I always felt comfortable asking questions. He also made extra effort so I could see outpatient clinic patients with him if there were interesting cases which I would not see elsewhere.

Infectious Diseases

Dr. Volosky was great to work with. He spent a lot of time on teaching and was very approachable with questions. He was also very easygoing which made working with him a very good experience.

Dr. Yassin is extremely friendly and approachable. He loves to teach, and his love for his profession is contagious. He makes you feel confident in your plan.

Dr. Perez teaches effectively and tests your ability to take on a larger workload, but he does not overwhelm you with work. He is very knowledgeable and answers questions with great medical insight.

Dr. Arbulu is kind, patient, and very pleasant. He suggested sources for other reading and other helpful information for more thorough understanding of certain concepts.

Nephrology

Dr. Puli is a great faculty member who took special time to teach the core concepts of Nephrology and made them simple and clear which I feel will definitely help me in my future practice and on my boards.

Dr. Abramovitz is wonderful to work with. He is clearly enthusiastic about his field and encourages the residents to ask questions. He is approachable and he had a good, organized method to teaching which made it much easier to understand the topics we covered.

Neurology

Dr. Zaretskya is a tremendous preceptor. She emphasizes the physical exam and is genuinely excited about neurology and teaching residents. She does not overwhelm with note-writing but allows the residents to immerse themselves in the rotation.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Dr. Z. She is a wealth of information, is to the point, and is an excellent role model. Every action is purposeful, and though her service is busy, she takes the time to seize learning opportunities and provide detailed teaching.

Night Medicine

Dr. Maston is an absolute joy to work with. He has a genuine curiosity for medicine that is contagious. In between admissions he is investigating interesting clinical scenarios to review and teach residents. He creates an environment that is conducive to learning and exploration. He is knowledgeable, kind, has an excellent bedside manner, and is a truly exceptional instructor. We are so lucky to have him.

Dr. Zaidi is an excellent attending. He makes himself available to the residents and also spends time with the residents in the lounge discussing cases. Even though nights can be busy, he took the time out to teach bedside POCUS.

Palliative Care

Dr. Weinberg was welcoming, and I liked that he asked me about my expectations for the rotation and then helped me to fulfill them. He provided lots of reading and articles for references. He always made time to teach and discuss after seeing patients.

Dr. Thurston is able to put you at ease during uncomfortable situations effortlessly. He takes the time to prep with you before the meeting and always provides constructive feedback and debriefs following each meeting. It is truly an invaluable experience.

Dr. Bezak is an excellent Palliative attending. He went through topics I needed help with, especially hard family discussions. He gave me the autonomy and confidence to lead family meetings when I was ready to do so and guided me during the times I needed help.

Dr. King is wonderful to work with. I was really able to get feedback on family meetings and multimodal pain management.

Primary Care

Dr. K. Patel was great to work with. He was kind, approachable, and always willing to teach. We discussed about commonly encountered medical issues in the primary care setting, including hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, and he offered insight in the way of managing both inpatient and outpatient encounters.

Dr. Ghobrial was great to work with. He is an excellent physician and PCP. He spends a lot of quality time with his patients rather than rushing each patient. He demonstrated what medicine should look like. He went over a lot of topics and provided excellent resources to learn from as well.

Dr. R. Patel is great. He provides great knowledge of practical medicine. He has a great relationship with his patients and makes PC interesting. He emphasizes the importance of primary care in daily medical practice.

Psychiatry

Dr. Curci is a phenomenal teacher! She would provide evidence-based, clinically relevant psychiatry with a practical approach. She has a fantastic bedside manner and is able to establish a therapeutic alliance with patients quickly and effectively. It was an honor getting to rotate with her.

I enjoyed this rotation. I was able to learn about different types of patients and medications. This rotation really helped with being able to take care of this patient population.

Pulmonary Diseases

Dr. El Ali was an excellent teacher who took the time to teach a variety of topics in pulmonology: interpreting PFT, imaging, management of COPD and going through sleep studies. This was an excellent rotation. I feel like a learned a great deal.

Dr. Kreit is a great mentor. He explains pathophysiology so well that I had to keep reading more about it because it was very interesting.

It was a true pleasure having the opportunity to learn from Dr. Dunlap. He was excited to teach topics chosen by us and would teach various levels of learners seamlessly. He provided feedback as well as steps for continued improvement. He also showed his commitment to resident success by mentoring us on career choice and fellowship advice.

I enjoyed working with Dr. Givelber. She was interested in teaching imaging and tracheostomy and answered any questions that I had.

Rheumatology

I enjoyed working with Dr. Birnbaum both in clinic and on inpatient consults. He was interested in teaching, both through physical exam and in sit-down rounds. He would explain his thinking and differentials so well that I learned from each case.

I really enjoyed working with Dr. Helfrich. He is kind, supportive and interested in teaching. He is responsive to questions and thoughtful in terms of patient care.

Toxicology

This was one of the best rotations I have done during my residency. Such an interesting specialty of medicine. The best part was the willingness to teach! The fellows AND attending regularly spent extra time doing 'chalk talks' or even had prepared ppt lectures that they would give on a wide variety of topics. By far some of the best teaching I have received and notable enthusiasm to do so.