UAMS, Washington Regional Team Up for New Internal Medicine Residency Program in Northwest Arkansas
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Washington Regional Medical Center launched a new internal medicine residency program that will bring eight new medical residents to Northwest Arkansas each year.
The UAMS-Washington Regional Internal Medicine Program is a community-based, academic-affiliated residency program rooted in training skilled internists. The curriculum consists of clinical experiences at Washington Regional, the region’s largest hospital, with access to every internal medicine subspecialty, a dedicated research-training curriculum and a comprehensive didactic curriculum.
The two medical institutions are actively recruiting for the first residency class, which will start in July 2023. The program is accredited through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
The program will train residents in clinical reasoning, critical thinking, teaching, research and health care delivery to diverse and underserved populations in Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding regions, according to Sheena CarlLee, M.D., program director and assistant professor of Internal Medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine.
“We are excited to announce this new internal medicine residency program in Northwest Arkansas,” CarlLee said. “The success of our program is essential to meeting the health care needs of Arkansans and aligns with our regional and institutional missions to educate future health care professionals and provide patient-centered primary and specialized care at an academic level not otherwise available in this region.”
Residents in the program can expect to receive a great deal of mentorship and hands-on training experiences at Washington Regional Medical Center, said David Ratcliff, M.D., chief medical officer at Washington Regional Medical Center and a core faculty member in the UAMS-Washington Regional Internal Medicine Residency Program.
“We are passionate about our role in the journey of these future health care professionals,” Ratcliff said. “Coupled with our commitment to providing hands-on training, Washington Regional Medical Center offers a diverse patient population, modern facilities and the expert medical staff needed to enrich the residency training experience – all in a vibrant and thriving community that consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top five places in the country to live.”
In preparation for the new residency class, Washington Regional has built a brand new 6,000-square-foot GME Suite for the residents, and is building a 3,000-square-foot continuity clinic on the Washington Regional Campus.
This is the first residency program to be accredited as part of a joint Graduate Medical Education (GME) program that UAMS and Washington Regional announced in June 2021. The program will bring approximately 92 residency slots to Northwest Arkansas by 2030.
For more information: https://nwa.uams.edu/residency-and-fellowship-programs/uams-washington-regional-internal-medicine-residency/