Mission Statement

The University of Louisville Department of Medicine faculty will develop an educational environment that is conducive to active learning on the part of its students, residents, and fellows. Its faculty is committed to conducting innovative basic and clinical research and to provide high quality medical treatment for the patients entrusted to its care.

Education

Major contributions to medical student teaching are provided by Internal Medicine faculty in the Pre-Clinical years in the Clinical Practice Science course in the teaching of clinical diagnosis, clinical correlations, nutrition and epidemiology.

Third-year students of Medicine are exposed to both General Internal Medicine faculty in the Primary Care course and the subspecialties of Internal Medicine with faculty teaching critical care and ambulatory care medicine related to their disciplines.

Fourth-year students became acting interns while on the General Internal Medicine wards at our core hospitals (UofL Health - UofL Hospital and Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center). They also have the opportunity to take electives in ambulatory care in any Internal Medicine discipline including inpatient subspecialty services.

Our house staff of approximately 100 includes those in Categorical Internal Medicine, Preliminary Medicine and combined Med-Peds program complimented by over 50 fellows in subspecialty training.

The success of our graduates in American Board of Internal Medicine examinations is supported by a 90% pass rate for greater than 90% of eligible first time takers and a 100% pass rate is sought by all subspecialty trainees. Our teaching programs are also complimented by gratis (volunteer) teaching faculty of over 300 statewide faculty for the extensive teaching programs we are responsible for both medical students and post-graduate residents.

  • To teach medical students, residents and fellows the ethical standard of integrity and professionalism viewed as the traditional hallmarks of the physician and to ensure accreditation of out training programs in Internal Medicine and its subspecialties.
  • To emphasize the principles of evidence-based medical treatment, discussed in the context of cost-effective, outcomes-oriented care.
  • To encourage the development of generalist physicians and to promote an understanding of primary care and the concepts of managed care.
  • To provide subspecialty residents with state-of-the-art technical and cognitive skills within the context of an integrated approach to patient care.
  • To promote the inclusion and professional development of historically underrepresented minorities.
  • To foster the understanding and appropriate use of clinical practice guidelines and the techniques of critical appraisal of the medical literature.
  • To provide ongoing educational opportunities of the highest caliber to practitioners in the community.

Research

The University's 200th anniversary in 1998 coincided with the articulation of the Challenge for Excellence which targeted areas for departmental research development in Cardiology, Oncology, Transplantation-Immunology, Molecular Medicine and Public Health Research (DGIM).

By the year 2000 the Department of Medicine achieved a critical mass of 120 full-time faculty which now allows it to vigorously compete for extramural research funding in all of its divisions. The Department's NIH funding has increased remarkably with recent growth (see figure below) achieving a national ranking of 77 out of 125 medical schools in 1999 and setting its goal to be in the upper half of ranking within five years.

Significant research expansion and development of Centers of Excellence are now occurring in Cardiology (Institute for Molecular Cardiology), Gastroenterology/Hepatology (Digestive Health Center & Liver Transplantation), Nephrology (Kidney Disease Program and Proteomics), Oncology (Molecular Oncology & Blood & Bone Marrow Transplantation) and General Medicine (Geriatrics and Bioethics). Other divisions such as Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases and Pulmonary Medicine are also revitalizing their research programs by participating in multidisciplinary activities.

  • To emphasize innovative research as a major mission of the academic physician and to provide support necessary for faculty to engage in serious investigative endeavors.
  • To increase the proportion of faculty actively engaged in funded, peer-review research and to promote the translation of important findings into presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
  • To promote basic, as well as clinically oriented research, including health services research studies in such areas as clinical effectiveness, medical outcomes, and cost benefit analyses in collaboration with the University's Center for Health Policy and Research.
  • To increase funded, peer-reviewed research.

Patient Care

Patient care is a constant focus for all of the Department's divisions whether at the Department's two core hospitals, UofL Health - UofL Hospital or Robley Rex Veterans Administration Medical Center, which is complimented by programs within the Norton in the downtown medical center and Clark County and Floyd Memorial hospitals in Indiana.

These hospitals provide resources for major training programs, General Internal Medicine and its subspecialty training programs in Cardiology, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Nephrology, Pulmonary Medicine and Rheumatology in transplantation of heart, liver and kidney.

  • To provide personalized medical services of continually improving services of continually improving quality and recognized excellence for our patients. In particular, we recognize our historical responsibility to provide primary care for the medically underserved populations of Jefferson County and the surrounding areas of Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana, supported by tertiary referral services as indicated
  • To maintain and improve established networks in primary and tertiary care in the community and contiguous areas so as to ensure patient access for teaching and research by all faculty.

Mentoring and other essential support of junior faculty will be provided to assist with their achievement of these objectives.