Specialized Tracks

Health Equity Track

Health Equity Track

This is a combined track for Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Med/Peds and pediatrics residents.  All PGY1 residents from medicine, EM and pediatrics can apply in the spring of their PGY1 year for acceptance into the track at the beginning of their PGY2 year.  Applicants will be accepted based on application and academic standing.

The Track will run for two years time and graduating PGY3 residents who have met all expectations and requirements will receive a certificate in health equity education from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

Goals and Objectives

• Train physicians in skills needed to care for underserved populations with unique psycho-social needs
• Improve physician understanding of social and systemic factors that influence health outcomes
• Help resident physicians develop skills in advocacy and health policy
• Develop mentorship relationships with faculty doing health equity and advocacy work 

Content/Topic Areas for education:

• Social and Environmental Determinants of Health
• Health disparities introduction
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Medicine
• Addiction Medicine
• Housing and Care for the Homeless
• Human Trafficking
• Food Insecurity
• Immigrant  and Refugee Health
• Native health and the IHS
• Correctional Medicine
• Health Policy and Advocacy

Clinical Educator Track

The Clinical Educator Track (CET) is a two-year program for residents interested in pursuing careers in medical education. Residents apply and are selected near the end of their intern.

The program has three main components:

• Interactive curriculum
• Clinical teaching
• Project development

Through an interactive curriculum, members develop the skills necessary to create and implement a medical curriculum. Residents participated in a large group project during their first year where they created a session for a fourth year medical student class. Each member will also participate in an individual or small group project throughout their two years. Residents are allocated a half-day off during their ambulatory week to focus on their projects. The skills acquired through each member's participation in CET will lead to a more successful career in academic medicine.

Ethics Track

The goal of the GME Track in Clinical Ethics is to supplement trainees understanding and application of principles of clinical ethics. After completing this track, graduates of the program will be able to:

1. Describe and exhibit the core virtues essential to the practice of medicine;
2. Identify latent ethical tensions in the clinical environment and meaningfully contribute to their resolution as a department champion or as a member of an ethics committee;
3. Engage patients and their families in patient-centered, goal-directed conversations regarding preferences and decisions about future care.

These objectives are accomplished through a series of core discussions in which residents reflect on a reading and offer their personal experience with the topic.

Core topics include: 

• Theories of medical ethics
• Virtue ethics and professional formation
• The role of clinical ethics consultation
• Decisional capacity and surrogate decision-making
• Withdrawing and withholding life sustaining treatments; principle of double effect
• Advance care planning and DNR orders
• Special topics in psychiatry
• Communication strategies to mitigate conflict
• Justice and resource allocation during times of scarcity
• Privacy and confidentiality, including digital communication and social networks

In addition to attendance at discussion sessions, participants will also attend ethics committee meetings and will conduct novel empiric or normative research in clinical ethics.

QIPS Track

All internal medicine residents at Loyola University Medical Center receive a longitudinal experience in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS).

Interns complete a targeted yearlong curriculum that provides them with foundational knowledge of healthcare quality improvement and current concepts of patient safety. Second year residents may participate in a QIPS Elective in which they receive dedicated mentorship through an advanced curriculum with opportunities for scholarly output. Senior residents may apply for protected time to pursue a QI project. Further QIPS experience is delivered through conferences, protected academic time during ambulatory weeks, and patient panel quality metric review during continuity clinic.

Residents who demonstrate a deep commitment to improving our healthcare system by completing the QIPS elective and a QI scholar level project are eligible to graduate from the QIPS Track with special recognition from the Department of Medicine.

Learn more about our QIPS curriculum program through this LINK: https://www.loyolamedicine.org/gme/residencies/internal-med/applicant-resources/qi-curriculum