Conferences are a core aspect of our resident training. Planned conferences help residents perfect their clinical problem solving skills and also learn the critical background information and evidence that will help them become outstanding internists. 

Grand Rounds
This weekly conference highlights recent advances in Internal Medicine and draws accomplished speakers and investigators from within the University as well as around the world. Topics range from comprehensive updates on common clinical problems to pioneering research in Internal Medicine. Faculty, trainees, medical students and community physicians attend.

Noon Conference (OSU's version of the traditional Morning Report)
One case from an inpatient service is presented at each of these popular conferences. A program director or other attending physician and the chief resident facilitate an in-depth discussion about the presentation, physical exam, differential diagnosis, diagnosis, and patient management of a particular disease process. This highly educational conference remains a favorite among housestaff.

Ambulatory Noon Conference
Housestaff gather between outpatient clinics or continuity clinics daily at noon (except Tuesdays).  They are introduced to a variety of outpatient patient care topics, such as hypertension management, outpatient diabetic care, the approach to evaluation of headache in an outpatient setting, etc.

Tuesday Conference Block
Three hours of educational activity are held in a block on Tuesday afternoons following a housestaff lunch.  Residents on elective and CPB months are free of clinical duties on Tuesday afternoons to attend this conference. Tuesday inpatient schedules are adjusted so that residents can finish most of their clinical work by noon (similar to a weekend day).  During the conference, the chief residents hold the pagers of the interns during this three hour conference block so that their learning isn’t interrupted with minor issues. 

The content of the conference varies from session to session.  Incorporated lectures include core topics in general and subspecialty medicine and:

a) Ambulatory Series
The primary care series of conferences focuses on non-internal medicine primary care topics frequently encountered in an outpatient setting.  Topics such as coding and billing, preventive medicine, and management of other common outpatient problems.

b) Pathology Conference
Pathology conference provides the opportunity for a case based review of important pathology. Five to six cases are discussed each session. Residents present a two minute synopsis of the relevant patient history and studies. A pathologist then reviews the pathology specimen (autopsy, biopsy, blood smear, flow cytometry, cell markers) to highlight important diagnostic strategies.

c) Morbidity and Mortality
The OSUMC Internal Medicine Residency program has developed a nationally recognized innovation in morbidity and mortality conferences. The traditional conference has been replaced with a resident peer review conference where residents use the tools of medical error root cause analysis and quality improvement to identify and correct problems that led to suboptimal outcomes for our patients.  An emphasis is placed on systematic problem solving and prevention rather than blame.  Representatives from risk management attend to give advice about discussions of medical errors.

d) Journal Clubs
Journal clubs take several formats. One format focuses on an indepth analysis of a single article using the McMaster’s EBM format.  The intent of this journal club is to teach skills of critical appraisal.  The second format is a current literature potpourri. In this format, residents break into small groups, read several timely articles and summarize them for their colleagues. The intent of this format is to help residents remain abreast of the current literature.

Our most recent addition to Journal Club has been an online discussion of articles that occurs weekly.  Using our online educational management system known as Carmen, one senior resident and a faculty mentor post a critical appraisal of an article.  The articles are a mix of recent publications and landmark articles.  After the critical appraisal is posted, the residents, faculty, fellows and medical students are invited to join the discussion using an online discussion forum.  The posts remain active so the discussions can continue after the original postings are done.  This has proved to be a great way for faculty and residents to engage in discussions of important topics.

Clinical Teaching Skills
A one day retreat is held for interns preparing to be senior residents each Spring, and this year a short series of weekly, interactive seminars were added leading up to the retreat.  Leadership, supervision and teaching skills were addressed, including skills in evaluation, feedback, and bedside teaching.

Death and Dying
This conference led by our chief residents and our director of Palliative Care, Dr. Robert Taylor, occurs monthly.  This conference provides a forum for the residents to discuss difficult death and dying issues they face in their practice on the wards and in the outpatient arena.  Example topics discussed are:
              - Approaching end of life discussions
              - Use of analgesics for comfort care
              - Use of supplemental oxygen in the dying patient
              - Approaching death and dying discussions with patients/families of different cultural 
                or religious backgrounds
              - Personal perspectives on the loss of a patient

Clinical Skills Lab      
Special Tuesday afternoon sessions that allow further coaching of clinical and procedural skills using simulation tools, models, and standardized patients/clinicians.  A popular session has been a multidisciplinary approach to breast cancer and breast cancer detection.