Didactic Activities

The following didactic and bedside teaching sessions (approximately three hours per day) are attended by medical house staff:

Residents' Report (four mornings per week) provides all residents an opportunity to discuss the best and most educational cases from all four diverse campuses of CPMC. Residents receive formal feedback and guidance from the program directors and chief residents. A dedicated group of internists and subspecialists attends the hour-long sessions, providing a daily consulting panel to house staff. Each Friday, a Week in Review is performed summarizing the week’s cases in an interactive question-answer format. If you have the opportunity to tour CPMC during interview season, you will find our Residents' Report to be among the best you will observe anywhere in the nation. An Intern's Report is also held once a week.

Outpatient Report occurs every Wednesday morning from 8:30-9:30 for the residents on the out-patient and geriatric rotations. It enables residents to lead their colleagues and attendings in a case-based, interactive, evidence-based discussion. The presenting resident frames the discussion around a clinical question that pertains to the patient’s care. Other interesting cases, clinical dilemmas and medical current events are shared.

Noon Conference (five days per week) features both faculty and visiting physicians who speak on a wide array of subjects. In addition to reviewing the standard subspecialties, a large number of non-traditional areas are discussed, such as ethics, professionalism, medical economics, medical humanities, psychosocial medicine, health-care reform, residents as teachers and physicians as leaders. Board Review Sessions also occur at noon conference. There are monthly clinical-pathologic conferences, morbidity and mortality discussions, and ambulatory care conferences. Second-and third-year residents are required to present two noon conferences per year. Lunch is provided at all noon conferences.

Every month there is also a clinical pathologic conference (CPC) or clinical problem solving (CPS) session in which a superb discussant from CPMC, UC Davis or UCSF is presented pieces of an unknown case to discuss and attempt to solve. These are some of the most delightful and educational conferences in Northern California.

Pre-Clinic Conference is held daily from 1:00 – 1:30. Topics include common ambulatory medicine areas, such as hypertension, COPD, and diabetes management, as well as a curriculum on cancer screening, medical communication, office gynecology, and psychiatry and behavioral medicine issues in primary care. Clinic attendings or chief residents lead the conferences. One or two times per year, each resident will present an outpatient case for this conference in an interactive, evidence-based discussion.

Medical Grand Rounds (once per week) are presented by faculty from various departments and by visiting speakers. Subspecialty Grand Rounds are also held weekly in cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, transplantation medicine, and cardiothoracic surgery.

Journal Club (once per month) allows residents and selected attending physicians to participate in analytical discussions of medical literature. Journal club meetings are conducted in the evening at the home of a faculty member where a scrumptious dinner is served and great camaraderie is always abundant.

Attending Rounds, In addition to the above-mentioned didactic sessions, residents participate in bedside attending rounds four to five days per week on the general medicine service. Critical care rounds are held daily.

Board Review sessions occur approximately once per month at noon conference. Materials used include questions written by the program director as well as MKSAP for Boards, MedStudy and other board review texts.

Accelerated Board Review Course is an evening course which occurs every week in the late spring and each session is 2-3 hours in length. The Program Director uses MKSAP for Boards, MedStudy Board Review and ABIM Board Review Preparation Modules to prepare third year residents for August Boards. Though optional, this session is also attended by first and second year residents wishing to refine their knowledge bases. Dinner is served. These sessions are extremely popular, drawing almost all R-3s (not on call) and numerous R-2s and interns.