A Message from Joshua P. Metlay, MD

Welcome letter from Joshua P. Metlay, MD, PhD, interim chief of the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital is a world leader in the delivery of multidisciplinary care, discovery of new knowledge and application of that knowledge to patient care, training of leaders in academic medicine and service to diverse communities.

Across 10 divisions, our clinical programs bring together dedicated teams of health care professionals to deliver the high-quality medical care expected from Mass General. Our doctors provide state-of-the-art treatment for rare and common diseases, as well as comprehensive primary and preventive care. At Mass General, we are dedicated to developing new approaches to prevent and treat disease and to ensuring that our patients have access to the latest advances, including clinical trials.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program has a long and world-renowned tradition of training leaders and teachers in academic medicine and biomedical science. Graduates of the program include seven Nobel Prize winners as well as dozens of chairs, deans and institute presidents across the country. Our program is founded on rigorous clinical training, a commitment to teamwork and leadership development, individualized mentorship, research opportunities and schedule flexibility to maximize each trainee's full potential.

Research in the Department of Medicine has long emphasized the potential for basic science investigation to transform the future of patient care. Investigators in the department are national leaders in regenerative medicine, genomics and proteomics, immunology and membrane biology, as well as many other areas of molecular and systems biology. During the last several decades, the department has created new areas of emphasis in clinical and translational research, as well as vibrant and rapidly growing programs in health disparities and outcomes research. In 2013, department faculty held more than $380 million dollars in external research funding and published more than 2,000 research papers, including dozens of papers in Science, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine, among others.

The Department of Medicine strives to interweave our clinical, research, educational and community missions into innovative, translational programs that have a transformative impact on patients, trainees and scientists. These programs include:

• Focused efforts to link fundamental discoveries in fibrosis to new therapies for interstitial lung disease
• Innovative collaborations between primary and specialty care to reduce unnecessary health care 
  utilization and disparities
• Comprehensive programs in diabetes that bring together basic and clinical research, subspecialty expertise and consultation along with population-based redesign of diabetes care to address one of the greatest threats to our nation’s health

Read the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine report: A Community of Care