Educational Conferences

Academic Half Day / Noon Conference

Academic Half Day was introduced in July 2018 as an alternative to noon conferences, which were typically led by busy residents with limited faculty involvement on inpatient ward services. Designed to provide dedicated academic time, the Academic Half Day takes place every Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 11:50 AM at Grady Memorial Hospital.

In addition to this, Case Conference is held every Monday and Friday from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM, and Grand Rounds occur on Wednesdays at noon. For residents on ambulatory rotation, Primary Care Pearls—a series of ambulatory didactics—take place from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

Conference topics span a wide range of medical subspecialties and general internal medicine. Presentations are typically led by faculty from Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) or guest lecturers. Additionally, each senior resident who has not yet presented at an external conference or at Grady Research Day will give a Senior Talk during the latter half of their academic year.

Boot Camp/Core Conferences

During July and August of each acaemic year, the Internal Medicine Core Curriculum and Boot Camp are held daily from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM at Grady Memorial Hospital. During this time, senior residents lead Intern School, a monthly series where they mentor and guide interns on key topics to help them navigate their intern year successfully.

Board Review

  • PGY3’s go through a comprehensive board review course on Wednesdays from 8:00 am -12:30 pm. There is a pre-course, mid-course and end of course quiz followed by a week-long course in June that is approximately 30 hours. This also ends in a quiz that is reviewed.

  • Board Review Electives for PGY3 Residents which involves 1 on 1 Monthly subject interaction with faculty for2 weeks till 1 month.

Quizzes

  • Monthly subject quizzes with review by faculty member

Medicine Grand Rounds

Medicine Grand Rounds is held 3-4 Wednesdays per month from noon to 1:00 pm. The presentation is given by an MSM faculty member or guest speaker. CME is offered for all faculty and lunch is generally provided.

Journal Club

Journal Club is convened 9-10 times per academic year to review the content of an assigned journal article relevant to the practice of internal medicine. Residents are taught how to critically appraise and evaluate medical literature. The Journal Club is organized by an assigned faculty member.

PS/QI conference (formerly M and M)

This conference is designed to analyze and review in some detail, the clinical features and process issues of a complex clinical illness where correlation with the clinical laboratory, radiology, and clinical pathology disciplines are included. All inpatient deaths are to be reported weekly to the chief medical resident.

PS/QI

The twin foundational pillars of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement inform everything the Morehouse School of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program does. We work collaboratively with our hospital partners to develop processes to ensure patient safety and promote continuous quality improvement.

PS/QI goals and objectives are:

  • To prepare physicians to be stewards of safe, high quality, high value, patient centered care.
  • To teach key principles of quality improvement and patient safety to all residents in the training program.
  • To develop a culture of safety and quality that trainees will carry with them throughout their career.

Didactics/initiatives

  • Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Conference (formerly Morbidity and Mortality conference):
    • This conference occurs 10 months/year. It is facilitated by a faculty member or chief resident. A resident will present a case, generally from the inpatient ward or ICU service then leads the group in discussion if the care was "safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable." The conference attendees also discuss system issues that can be addressed to improve the quality of care and enhance patient safety. PS/QI conferences occur at Grady and VA hospitals.
  • Quarterly PS/QI Grand Rounds-Co sponsored by GME:
    • This conference looks at many aspects of patient safety and quality improvement and focus on creating "a culture of safety." Residents, faculty, other health care professionals and hospital administration attend.
  • IHI Open School Patient Safety and Quality modules:
    • The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that helps lead the improvement of health care throughout the world. IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping health care systems put those ideas into action.
    • All Interns/Residents are required to complete assigned IHI modules twice each year and must complete them in order to be promoted to the next level of training.
  • Diabetes Management Feedback Program (DMFP) at Grady Health System:
    • The DMFP supports diabetes-related performance feedback in the Grady Primary Care Clinics. Throughout the course of the year all MSM IM residents will receive regular feedback on their panel of diabetic patients with the aim of standardizing and improving care.
  • Hospital-wide Initiatives and Conferences/Physician Meetings
    • Residents and faculty members are integrated into numerous hospital-wide PS/QI Initiatives and educated at least once each year on the hospital's patient safety goals.
  • Intern Orientation
    • Introduction to PS/QI principles (GME and program-specific sessions)
    • "Hand-off" workshop

Residents and faculty members are encouraged to be actively involved in hospital and MSM committees that focus on patient safety and quality improvement. Faculty and administrative support are provided for residents who seek to study or implement PS/QI initiatives.