As prospective residents in Internal Medicine, the next several years will be an exciting transition in your career development from medical student to physician.  The first step in that transition is the key decision concerning your career pathway and the learning environment you choose for your residency training.  Selection of a training program in internal medicine that matches your career goals with your personal work and learning style will consume much of your energy.  Our medical students, your counterparts here in Charleston, rank the Department of Medicine as the best clinical teaching service. When you come to visit, you will have a chance to see that our current residents share the opinions of our students.

The Department of Medicine at MUSC is the largest and most clinically active in the College of Medicine.

The Department excels clinically, with outstanding physicians in every area of Internal Medicine, from generalist to specialist.  Our Heart and Vascular Center, the Hollings Cancer Center, the Digestive Disease Center and Transplantation Programs focus on providing world class medical care to patients with common presenting clinical problems, and also those with more rare illnesses.  These centers also bridge the sometimes wide gap between research and clinical care, and between basic and clinical research.  The Department’s research programs continue to expand at a rapid rate, with a broad spectrum of activities from superior fundamental science to clinical research in epidemiology, clinical trials,  health services, and health policy research.

The Department focuses our educational and training activities on an array of learning programs to enhance your skills as a first rate physician.  As an academic general internist, I am attuned to the need for balance in training between the acute hospital setting and the office-based setting.  Hospital-based teaching occurs on general medicine services and along the entire spectrum of clinical specialty services.  In addition, we have many ambulatory care training programs in Department-based clinics and throughout a network of community-based practices in Adult Primary Care.

Our training program is the perfect size, neither too large and impersonal nor too small.  The comradery among our residents and their satisfaction with their career development will be evident when you visit.  Our residents are our best “ambassadors,” and provide abundant evidence of the Department’s commitment to clinical and educational excellence.  The environment is personal and collegial.  We are partners in your learning.  We will facilitate your transition from inquiring students to competent physicians.  We view that transition from student to resident to fellow to practitioner or researcher as a career development continuum.  We invest considerable time and effort at each step.

As a Department Chairman, I am acutely aware of the need for balance in other phases of our lives, with our family or personal relationships.  Your residency experience will be challenging and intense, but not unreasonably exhausting or demanding.  You will thrive in a superlative and supportive learning environment.  I welcome your interest in our Department and our residency program.  I look forward to meeting with you personally when you visit our institution.  The residency program in internal medicine at MUSC is a first rate academic experience, in an excellent Department and a beautiful community. 

John R. Feussner, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine
Professor of Biometry and Epidemiology