In a bold new approach to student life and education, the UI College of Medicine student body was reorganized into four Communities, each populated by a heterogeneous selection of students from each year of study and provided a home in MERF. Two communities are directed by Department of Internal Medicine faculty. Department faculty have also provided critical leadership in the successful creation of unique new training programs including the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship Training Program for medical students; the NIH K30 Iowa Scholars in Clinical Investigation Program for postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty; the Graduate Program in Translational Biomedical Research and the Medical Scientist Training Program for M.D./Ph.D. students.

The recent addition of a departmental Director of Curriculum Development will assist significantly in a new departmental effort to create links between medical students, housestaff, and CME programs in an endeavor to cultivate life-long learning habits among students at every stage in their career. One outcome of this new direction is the creation of a teaching resident rotation within the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. As a complement to the existing research pathway, this new rotation will give residents the opportunity to develop teaching skills in preparation for an academic career. In an era of declining interest among medical students in the specialty of Internal Medicine, this and other residency training innovations aided the Department of Internal Medicine Residency Training Program in filling our categorical and preliminary internship positions for 2005-2006. As evidence of the effectiveness of our resident educational efforts, the current three year rolling pass rate on the ABIM certification exam is 99%.