BLOOMINGTON – After medical school, there’s a point in time in every doctor’s career when they take their hard-earned knowledge and turn it into expert skill through hands-on experience.
IU Health South Region is proud to help the inaugural Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine residency programs through the IU School of Medicine do just that.
“Each of those programs is three years of training,” said John Sparzo, MD, IU Health South Region Chief Medical Officer. “When our residents leave, they’ll be ready to take their board exams and be fully board-certified internists and emergency medicine doctors.”
“When students finish medical school, they become doctors, but they can’t practice until they complete a medical residency,” said Katherine Hiller, MD, IU School of Medicine—Bloomington Associate Dean and Director. “This is sort of like an apprenticeship model where they learn on the job how to actually do the work.”
Patients and community members will also benefit from the programs, which will improve access through:
- The Internal Medicine Residency Center, which is staffed by internal medicine residents alongside board-certified internal medicine attending physicians, will increase primary care access right away.
- The Emergency Department, where wait times are often longer than preferred, and the residents will be additional members of the medical team who can help meet those needs.
Both programs will have rotations in Bedford, Bloomington and Paoli, and will include training in rural medicine. Additionally, each year after this first class, the number of residents and their impact increase.
“We have eight residents per class for internal medicine, and by the time we have our third year we will have 24 residents every year,” said Hojjat Shamloo, MD, IU Health Internal Medicine physician and the IU School of Medicine—Bloomington Internal Medicine Residency program director. “This means being able to provide care for years to come, while also preparing and potentially introducing the new doctors to practicing in rural areas where there may be more limited resources.”
The Emergency Medicine program has six resident physicians, and by their third year there will be 18 residents in the program. After their programs are complete, these resident physicians may also join the IU Health team as full-time, board-certified physicians.
“Long term residents who train in a particular area are more likely to practice in that area after they finish their program, and so we hope that a lot of these residents will choose to stay within the South Region and continue to care for our community for years to come,” said Butch Humbert, MD, IU Health Emergency Medicine physician and the IU School of Medicine—Bloomington Emergency Medicine Residency program director.
Dr. Sparzo said, “Building these residency programs is part of a legacy we’re building of education and positive community impact that’s going to last for decades to come.”
Learn more about the Residency Primary Care Center or schedule an appointment at iuhealth.org/imresbloomington.
