Fundamental Goals & Objectives

The fundamental goals and objectives of our program are to train competent, qualified, caring and sensitive physicians who are mindful of the significance of their role in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, the alleviation of suffering, the prevention of ill-health and the empathetic support of those, directly or indirectly, afflicted with medical illness. The task is large, the responsibilities are great, but the satisfactions of being the consummate physician are enormous. There is no finer profession or nobler ideal to which one can aspire.

The residency program is comprised of twenty residents. Two of the first year residents (PG-1) are preliminary and six are categorical. In addition, there are six second year (PG-2) and six third year (PG-3) residents who train in our residency program.

The American Board of Internal Medicine, which serves as the organization of official professional recognition of those who successfully complete our program, has clearly addressed specific goals and objectives which serve as the basis for clinical competence. When those goals are met, a resident stands qualified for board acceptance. We at Stamford Hospital strongly ascribe to those standards. Our curriculum and teaching programs are created to meet those objectives.

Our program is fully accredited by the Residency Review Committee (RRC) in Internal Medicine of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and these goals and objectives are commensurate with the standards mandated by them for continued accreditation. There is additionally a medical curriculum that is in keeping with the standards required by the RRC as necessary for the full and comprehensive education process of the medical resident.

As the sponsoring institution of this program, Stamford Hospital is deeply committed to graduate medical education and assumes the ultimate responsibility for Stamford Hospital/Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Residency Program in Internal Medicine. This responsibility extends to all sites at which program residents will be doing their respective rotations. Stamford Hospital also fully supports the time and resource needs of its program director and associate program director in meeting the educational and administrative responsibilities of this program.

Notwithstanding the importance of clinical skills and knowledge of scientific principles, humanistic qualities must be integrated into all aspects of medical practice. The roots of medicine are in science, but medicine is foremost an art. It is most meaningful when practiced with respect for the dignity and worth of all, and with the utmost compassion, integrity and honesty.

We are here to help you, to teach you, and to guide you further along your careers. You are our junior colleagues now, but you will someday be physicians in the active practice of medicine, adding yet another link to a long unbroken chain. Learn well and strive hard and you will find deep satisfaction and lasting fulfillment in this wonderful profession.