Division of General Internal Medicine/Primary Care
Sections
Community Medicine |Geriatric Medicine | Student Health
Women’s Health | Hospitalist Medicine | Addiction Medicine
Ambulatory General Internists |
Medical Educators | Researchers
The Section of Community Medicine focuses on providing primary care teaching experiences in the community for first- and second-year medical students. Almost 100 community internists in Central Virginia participate in this vital and successful program, now in its 11th year, as part of the Foundations of Clinical Medicine course.
The Section of Geriatric Medicine (14 members) provides a continuum of interdisciplinary medical care including long-term care facilities, home care and house calls, “transitional care” (intensive case management immediately post-hospital), ambulatory care, palliative care, and in-patient consultation at VCU Medical Center.
Faculty members direct two large-community nursing homes and have practices of 50 or more patients in four facilities. Consistent with the increased need for geriatric expertise in internal medicine, this section has a significant role in the education of students, housestaff from several departments, other faculty members and community physicians.
This section is active locally and nationally with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and is engaged in research on quality of care for the frail and the pre-frail, plus selected specific problems including erectile dysfunction, hypertension and osteoporosis. Including the affiliated Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center where there are six geriatricians, plus two general internists in other sections that hold a geriatric CAQ; there are 16 geriatricians in the division, plus many nurse practitioners — two of whom hold Ph.D. degrees in nursing research.
Physicians from the Section of Student Health (three members) provide health care and leadership for the University Student Health Services, which provides primary care services to VCU students at two clinic sites. The Monroe Park Campus site also serves as a training program in adolescent and young adult medicine for the internal medicine and internal medicine-pediatrics housestaff. University Student Health Services is one of an elite few centers to achieve accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations as a freestanding ambulatory care center.
The Section of Women’s Health (six members) is the foundation of the nationally recognized Women’s Health Track in the Internal Medicine Residency Program. This section is integral to the functioning of the Women’s Health Center of Excellence and provides leadership and expertise in women’s health education for medical students, housestaff and other health professionals. The section leads a highly successful annual regional CME conference, and runs a busy ambulatory practice at VCU Medical Center’s Stony Point facility.
The Section of Addiction Medicine (one member) provides clinical care, education and research in the areas of substance abuse and addiction medicine. Clinical care is provided in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Education of medical students, housestaff and faculty is a core function, as is research in multiple areas of substance abuse.
The Section of Hospitalist Medicine (14 members) provides clinical care and teaching on the Academic Hospitalist Service. The academic hospitalists staff the Medicine Consult Service, a traditional housestaff team and a busy nonteaching medicine service. They are intricately involved in the VCU Medical Center quality improvement program and teach medical informatics, consultative medicine and inpatient medicine to medical students and internal medicine housestaff.
The Section of Ambulatory General Internists is the largest section, including (37) faculty between the VCU Medical Center (17 physicians) and the McGuire VA Medical Center (30 physicians). These academic physicians deliver direct care to more than 15,000 patients and supervise the outpatient training of all internal medicine housestaff. The clinic sites include the recently renovated and fully computerized second floor of the Ambulatory Care Center, and the ambulatory care area of the McGuire VA Medical Center, which has an integrated electronic medical record.
The Section of Medical Educators is a small but critical section of the division (four members). These faculty members have major, pivotal administrative roles in organizing the housestaff training program, third-year medicine clerkship and Foundations of Clinical Medicine course in the M1 and M2 years.
Presently there is no defined Section of Researchers, but several division faculty members actively engage in research and work closely with the Division of Quality Health Care, chaired by Dr. Wally Smith, currently elected secretary of SGIM.
Geriatrics Program Website
