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Department of Medicine

Internal Medicine Residency Program

For more than 75 years, the Department of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Training Program at Massachusetts General Hospital has brought experience, commitment and a rigorous and balanced approach to the training.

Explore This Residency Program

Welcome

At Massachusetts General Hospital, the Department of Medicine categorical, primary care, global medicine and preliminary year residency training programs provide intensive exposure to the practice of internal medicine and prepare graduates for a wide variety of careers in medicine.

The Categorical Program and the Primary Care Program are three-year programs that provide core clinical training in internal medicine and meet the requirements of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Completion of either program qualifies the candidate as board-eligible in internal medicine. The principal difference between Mass General’s Categorical and the Primary Care Programs is the amount of time allocated to training and education in the ambulatory setting. Candidates may apply to any or all of our programs, but will complete one.

We offer broad clinical experience across both inpatient and ambulatory settings, dedicated teaching faculty who are leaders in their fields, a strong camaraderie, resident research opportunities and top-ranked fellowship and career placement. With these resources, the program enables residents to develop excellent clinical skills while attaining long-term career goals.

A welcome from our Program Director, Dr. Jay Vyas >

Our Programs

Categorical Program

Provides residents with standard-setting health care training in a wide variety of rotations and leadership roles.

Stanbury Physician-Scientist Pathway

Pathway for careers in research-oriented academic medicine. Trainees have the option of completing residency in two years as part of our Categorical Program followed by clinical fellowship and further research training.

Primary Care Program

Trains residents to provide comprehensive care for patients, including excellent ongoing primary care of patients and inpatient care for acutely ill patients. Primary care residents serve on inpatient general medical teams, as well as spend nearly 40% of clinical training time in outpatient settings.

Global Medicine Program

An ACGME-approved, three-year multidisciplinary residency in internal medicine, followed by a one-year clinical fellowship and faculty development program that integrates the principles and practice of global health and care for vulnerable populations in order to develop future leaders to advance health equity and strengthen health systems in the United States and around the world.

Ambulatory Care Program

Grows residents’ skills and knowledge across the continuum of care.

Inpatient Program

Provides residents with exposure to a patient population of enormous diversity.

Preliminary Program

Training in primary care for interns completing a preliminary year before moving on to other specialties.

Medicine-Pediatrics Program

A four-year training program in general internal medicine and pediatrics. Residents in this program rotate through the Mass General internal medicine and pediatric residencies and are essential members of both programs. The goal of the Harvard Mass General Program is to afford outstanding clinical training in both internal medicine and pediatrics, while fostering development in research and community service.

Fellowships at Mass General

After completing training in internal medicine, many of our graduates continue their training in medical subspecialties - either at Mass General or other institutions. Mass General offers fellowship training across a wide spectrum of medical subspecialties.

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Resident Community

Residency can be an intense and challenging experience, but is also likely to be one of the most rewarding periods of a physician’s life. The Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program is deeply invested in its residents and strives to ensure that residents have time for meaningful growth in both their professional and personal lives.

2019-2020 Internal Medicine Residency Classes:

Life as a Resident

Community Outreach Program (COP)

The Community Outreach Program (COP) is a volunteer effort founded and coordinated by residents interested in providing needed service within the community, enhancing collegiality and relationships among residents, and building relationships with local communities, shelters and charitable organizations. Participating residents organize service projects throughout the year. Residents prepare and serve meals at local homeless shelters, participate in fundraisers for charitable organizations, and organize resident participation in races and contests that support charitable causes.

Resident Wellness

For residency to be truly meaningful, it is important to have time for maintaining healthy relationships with family and friends, pursuing outside hobbies and interests, and reflecting on successes and challenges. With many demands on a resident's time, our program recognizes that residents have lives outside of the hospital. To continually support this balance, we reserve personal wellness time on ambulatory blocks to help residents schedule essential obligations, such as doctor’s appointments. Our program facilitates inpatient team dinners, residency-wide Red Sox games, reflection sessions with trusted leaders, and celebrations for major milestones including intern orientation, holidays and graduation.

Through major life events, such as marriage, childbirth and family emergencies, the program is committed to supporting each resident in the best possible way. For example, the program creates a supportive environment for parents by developing a personalized parental leave plan for each resident, helping to arrange coverage for prenatal appointments and supporting residents who encounter intra- or postpartum complications.

Our coaching program is designed to promote a culture of well-being by allowing residents time to reflect, process their experiences, set goals, recognize their accomplishments and connect with the parts of their work that bring them meaning and purpose. All residents are assigned a faculty coach outside of their field of interest to create a safe space for these discussions.

Vacation & Holiday Blocks

In addition to four weeks of vacation time each year, all residents also get a four or five-day holiday block off (i.e., Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or the Jewish High Holidays).

Diversity & Inclusion

Led by Sherri-Ann Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH, the Department of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program works closely with the Mass General Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) to attract and advance the careers of under-represented in medicine (URM) students, physicians and researchers, as well as to develop culturally competent physicians. We believe this mission is essential for providing our patients with the very best health care and for improving the health of the diverse communities we serve. The Residency Program and CDI have designed mentorship and career development programs for residents during their training at Mass General. The CDI also sponsors welcoming receptions and networking opportunities to enhance the work environment and build community. The CDI Resident and Fellow Committee (RFC) promotes the mentorship and development of URM residents and fellows at Mass General. The RFC sponsors opportunities to network, develop careers and become involved in the communities of Harvard and Boston.

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Women in Medicine

The Mass General Internal Medicine Residency Program is dedicated to the advancement of female physicians-in-training and the development of future women leaders in medicine. Women play a key role in the leadership of the residency program starting with Katrina Armstrong, MD, who serves as the physician-in-chief for the Department of Medicine.|

The Women in Medicine Trainees Council (WIMTC) was created by the Department of Medicine and the Office of Women’s Careers to actively support the personal and professional development of women trainees at MGH. The efforts of this council are focused on creating opportunities for mentorship and providing a formal space for the MGH community to discuss important issues to women physicians such as work-life balance, gender equity, and career development. Major events organized by the WIMTC in the last calendar year included negotiation workshops, mock interviews, and dinner series on topics germane to women pursing academic medical careers. In addition, the WIMTC serves as a voice to advocate for gender equity in the academic medical setting in partnership with colleagues in other departments at MGH.

Major Areas of Focus:

Promoting gender balance and equity in residency and fellowship recruitment
Empowering female trainees to mitigate gender bias
Supporting female physician-scientists
Facilitating female mentorship and career development
Promoting opportunities to facilitate work/life balance and wellness

Learn more about Mass General Office for Women's Careers >

History

The Massachusetts General Hospital first opened the doors of its historic Bulfinch Building to patients in 1821 after a petition was signed by the Massachusetts legislature in 1811 to create a general hospital which would serve Boston’s poor and ill. In the now-famous Circular Letter written in 1810, Drs. James Jackson and John Collins Warren called the city to action by stating that “When in distress every man becomes our neighbor”. In 1830, the hospital appointed a House Physician and a House Surgeon with 1 year of medical training under their belts – most of whom had recently graduated from Harvard Medical School. Their responsibility would be to care for patients on Bulfinch wards and to oversee the House Pupils, junior doctors who would live alongside them in the hospital. In the late 1850s, the hospital appointed a physician as the administrative head of the house staff, named the Resident Physician. The medical housestaff would learn under the tutelage of James Jackson and a variety of visiting community physicians, known as the “Visits”. In 1922, the term house pupils was abandoned and trainees became known as house officers, interns or residents. Since then, our training program has grown over almost 200 years and inhabited various buildings and wards throughout the hospital – expanding with the development of intensive care units and specialty wards to care for patients on the cardiology and oncology services. Throughout its time, the Bigelow Medical Service has taken many iterations but over the last 40 years has centered around the team-based care of the patient and has served as an arena for the formation of generations of leaders in clinical care, medical education and biomedical research, all of whom are grounded in clinical medicine.

Learn more about Mass General's history >

Getting to Know Boston

Boston is an amazingly diverse city, known for both its historical attractions and its rich cultural offerings. While it’s almost impossible to distill all that Boston has to offer into a single day, if you only have 24 hours in Boston, here are a few recommendations for can’t-miss historical, cultural and culinary activities!

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Our Graduates

Over the past five decades, graduates of the Internal Medical Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital have led distinguished careers in medicine, science and society. This record of achievement is a testament to the remarkable quality of the training programs that foster a profound spirit of learning, scholarship and accomplishment. A majority of our program graduates enter post-graduate fellowship training programs but many enter medical practice following completion of the residency program. TheJames Jackson Societyis the Department of Medicine's alumni organization and encompasses all current faculty, as well as current and former trainees affiliated with the Internal Medicine Residency Program.

Career tracks for our recent alumni >

Primary Care Graduates

Primary Care Program graduates have become leaders in academic general internal medicine as well as primary care practice. They pursue careers in clinical practice combined with medical education, research, health care administration and community leadership roles. The Primary Care Program has no one model for a successful career in general internal medicine. While many graduates go on to obtain additional training in health services research, clinical epidemiology, geriatrics, public health, health policy or health care management, others continue directly into primary care practice or general internal medicine faculty positions.

Some of our notable graduates include:

J. Michael Bishop, 1989 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, 1985 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine
Mandy Cohen, Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
N. Anthony Coles, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yumanity Therapeutics and Former President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals
Roman DeSanctis, Former Director of Clinical Cardiology, Mass General, and recipient of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization’s Trustees’ Medal
Gerald Edelman,1972 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Lee Goldman, Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, Columbia University
Jennifer Leaning, Director, Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health
George R. Minot, 1934 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Ferid Murad , 1998 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Dean Ornish, Best-selling author, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
Kenneth I. Shine, Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, The University of Texas. Founding Director of the RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security. Former Director of the Institutes of Medicine
Eve Slater, Senior Vice President for Policy, Pfizer, and Former Assistant Secretary, US Department of Health and Human Services
Peter Slavin, President, Massachusetts General Hospital
Ralph M. Steinman, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Samuel O. Thier, Former President and CEO, Partners HealthCare

Careers

A majority of our program graduates enter post-graduate fellowship training programs but many enter medical practice following completion of the residency program.

The Mass General Difference

Conditions & Treatments

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Research & Innovation