Message from the Director

Dear Resident Candidate,

Hello, and welcome to the Vanguard MacNeal Internal Medicine Residency Program website. Although 2012-13 is our program’s first year, we have transferred from Westlake Hospital where a culture of academic excellence prevailed and was reflected in a five-year, 100 percent Internal Medicine board pass rate (2006—2010). The move to Vanguard MacNeal assures not only continued academic excellence, but also an expanded breadth of patient care and educational opportunities.

Our program is designed to be challenging but nurturing, supportive yet self-directed. Faculty will foster all aspects of each resident’s professional development through a defined value system and code of conduct. We emphasize a systematic, patient-centered approach designed to hone the critical thinking process and teach you how to deliver high-quality, evidence-based, culturally competent medical care that aligns with the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education’s Milestones and Entrustable Professional Activities.

To ensure your academic success, conferences and teaching sessions include small and large group settings, many specific to level of training. Individual learning needs are identified by both faculty and resident, and the American College of Physicians’ In-Training Exam is administered all three years of residency. Each resident is assigned a Resident Advisor who will monitor, guide and support your progress for the full course of the program.

Vanguard MacNeal Hospital is a community teaching hospital dedicated to Graduate Medical Education. MacNeal sponsors highly successful residency programs in Family Medicine and Transitional Year. Additionally, surgery residents from Northwestern University, and emergency medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry residents, and hem/onc fellows from the University of Illinois rotate at MacNeal due to our affiliation with these universities. The large teaching faculty of primary care and subspecialty physicians value medical education and provide a highly skilled and experienced teaching base. There are many conferences and activities that combine the programs and foster a well-rounded perspective and camaraderie.

Residency is a unique, rewarding, intense and often difficult time in your life. You will discover what you’re made of and glimpse how high you can soar. You’ll meet people from all walks of life and forge relationships that may last your lifetime. We hope you will seriously consider our program for your residency, and we hope to meet you through the Match.

Sincerely,

Leah Mooshil Durst, M.D.
Internal Medicine Residency Program Director