Internal Medicine Interest Group of the Month: University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
To complement the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine's continued emphasis on primary care, the goal of our Internal Medicine Interest Group (IMIG) has been to contribute to this legacy while keeping our students excited about their future medical careers. We are organized as an eight person leadership board representing each of the medical school classes and are supervised by Dr. Joseph Szot and Dr. Manish Suneja.
Our academic year activities started with the Activities Fair portion of the M1 Orientation, where board members sponsored a booth to advertise our group activities, as well as help students register to become ACP Medical Student Members. This past year, we were able to attain approximately 40% ACP registration through this effort. Our next activity was to sponsor our first lunch meeting, which usually focuses on providing a general overview of internal medicine for incoming students. This overview was coordinated by multiple internal medicine faculty members who discussed the logistics of residency, as well as the different subspecialty fellowships available. After these general introductions, many staff shared personal experiences from their internal medicine training and reflected on those characteristics and moments that ultimately inspired their career path.
Our second lunch meeting, entitled "Clinical Reasoning in Internal Medicine," was a wonderful chance for both preclinical and clinical students to witness two of the university's internists work through a case presented by a current third- or fourth-year student on an internal medicine service. Not only do these meetings provide a fun, interactive reminder of what the students will be doing in a few short years, it also puts on display some of the greatest strengths of internal medicine training, such as problem solving, physical examination skills, and physiology fundamentals. Our last meeting of the fall semester—we hosted a Doctors Dilemma™ session, a Jeopardy-style competition - —was a new addition to our meeting roster and was initiated to provide an interactive way for students from all years to prepare for their upcoming examinations. We created teams with members from each class and awarded our winners with coffee house gift cards to help with the remainder of their studies.
After returning from winter break, we hosted our most popular activity of the school year: the "Annual Chili Supper." This two-hour event was hosted in our medical building atrium, with dinner provided by a local catering company. This function provides a casual atmosphere where internal medicine staff from every subspecialty, including hospital and general medicine, can meet with students in small groups and casually discuss their interests, careers, and ultimately foster mentorship opportunities for interested students. This continues to be a highly attended and anticipated event for both students and staff alike. In addition to having a second clinical reasoning session and Doctors Dilemma™ session in the spring semester, our group also sponsored a lunch meeting that included a panel of third- and fourth-year medical students from many different specialty interests to give advice about scheduling and being successful in the clinical years. Although we try to promote internal medicine both through our ACP endeavors and our lunch meetings, this meeting helps to promote the general goals of our preclinical students, even if they do not ultimately pursue internal medicine.
Throughout our yearly endeavors, the University of Iowa IMIG strives to promote the foundation of internal medicine, as well as serve our students as they venture through their medical education. We continue to expand our schedule of events and encourage participation in our local ACP Chapter activities.
Andrea N. Ryan, MD
University of Iowa, Class of 2012