Internal Medicine Residency Program

"We believe that training should prepare the mind without exhausting the spirit." --Stephen Jones, M.D., MACP

"My fellow residents have been like an extended family. We work hard together but also play hard together.  I couldn't think of a better place to complete my training."
-Recent alumni

Our Internal Residency Program is part of Legacy Health, the largest nonprofit, community-owned health system is the Portland/Vancouver area. Founded in 1958, it was built with the goal to train exceptional physicians by providing a vibrant learning environment. Today, we continue to offer an outstanding opportunity for residents to acquire the knowledge and skills required to thrive in the practice of internal medicine. As a primary clinical teaching site for the Oregon Health Sciences University, our residents have hands-on experience firmly rooted in academic medicine. Each rotation offers an integrated, comprehensive curriculum that includes frequent interaction with our knowledgeable faculty, nationally renowned professors and third- and fourth-year medical students.

Who we are

A central goal of the program is to create an atmosphere where various cultural and ethnic differences are not only recognized, but respected, understood and embraced. Our faculty draws from national leaders in there specialty and in resident teaching. Our residents hail from both MD and DO medical schools throughout the US as well as abroad. The well-being of our community is fostered through supportive teaching and learning interactions. See our residents and faculty here.

"The 'typical resident' at Legacy is almost non-existent. I think this is one of the terrific things about this program -- the heterogeneity of house staff who come here to train ... men, women, variety in ages from late 20s to 40s, parents, singles, straight, gay -- they are all welcome here. It's a place where they all get along well and display a great spirit in working together." -- Stephen Jones, M.D., MACP, Swigert Chair of Medicine

Learning environment

Internal medicine has changed over the last decade, with internists choosing between inpatient and outpatient careers. Keeping this in mind, we allow flexibility in selection of elective rotations that can focus resident education on a career as a hospitalist, primary care provider or preparation for fellowship training.

Inpatient teaching is an integral part of our two urban hospitals which are distinct learning environments. They are conveniently located just five minutes from each other and fully connected with state of the art electronic medical records. 

  • Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Northeast Portland is Oregon's busiest Level One Trauma Center and houses the only Burn Center between Seattle and Sacramento. It serves a large underserved population and is strongly committed to the community it serves.
  • Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Northwest Portland has one of the largest, most well respected Intensive Care Units in the Northwest. It's also a center for geriatric care and has outstanding chronic disease management programs including oncology, diabetes and cardiology.

Outpatient teaching is committed to providing residents with continuity of care of patients, continuous relationships with supervising faculty, diverse clinical settings, and experiential learning with graduated autonomy.  Our two teaching clinics, Legacy Medical Group - Good Samaritan and Legacy Medical Group - Emanuel,  each serves a unique patient population and both use the innovative medical home model for patient care.

Selective and elective rotations allow experiences in a variety of medical sub-specialties throughout all three years of residency. Residents have required inpatient and outpatient rotations called Selectives, which are a mixture of inpatient and ambulatory specialty experiences. In addition there are a number of opportunities for on-site or off-site elective rotations. These electives allow experience with a variety of physicians at Legacy Health as well as in the greater medical community.

In designing our learning environment, we strive to even out direct patient care with days when we leave work behind and focus on resident well-being. At these off-site retreats and workshops, residents gather with faculty to learn and discuss strategies to improve communication and ways to maintain healthy work/life balance. It's an opportunity for residents to connect with their cohorts while refreshing the body and re-charging the mind.

Didactic curriculum 

The Legacy Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a diverse learning environment with outstanding faculty with wide reaching interests ranging from clinical decision-making and medical informatics to sleep medicine.

Our program has instituted an innovative approach to resident learning - the Academic Half Day. Each Wednesday, the housestaff are given three hours of protected time (no pagers, phone calls, etc.) to attend the AHD and learn fundamentals of medicine in a collegial and entertaining atmosphere. Our dedicated faculty of internists and specialists conduct case-based teaching sessions that emphasize active learning with a team approach. Learning should be invigorating and fun, and getting everyone together in the same room each week helps to build camaraderie.

Our Medical Grand Rounds presentations are selected for their educational value and topic interest. Presentations include regular Autopsy Grand Rounds, Mortality and Morbidity talks on featured clinical findings, sub-specialist talks and case-based Noon Reports. A robust visiting professor program hosts some of the nation's best-known physician educators from institutions such as Mass Gen, UCSF, and Johns Hopkins. Monthly teaching conferences include Cardiology Grand Rounds, Chest Case Conferences and Citywide Infectious Disease Conferences.

Rotations and schedule

Resident rotations are built on 13 four-week blocks optimizing varied medical training experiences throughout all three years of residency. Interns have six weeks of elective time in their schedule, while PGY2 and PGY 3 residents have eighteen weeks over two years. Read more about how rotations and schedules are structured in our program.

Housestaff scholarly activity

Legacy requires that all residents complete four scholarly activities. These activities can include a scholarship project, a quality improvement project, senior grand rounds and journal club presentation. The program strongly supports residents who pursue medical research and participation in the annual American College of Physician (ACP) Associates Competition.

Life beyond residency

Graduates of the program have taken several different professional routes in widely-divergent geographic areas and many choose to remain at Legacy Health. About half pursue careers as hospitalists. About twenty percent enter careers in general internal medicine in primary care. The success of residents in obtaining post-residency fellowship training positions in medical subspecialties at leading academic medical centers has been very good. Read more.


Portland is a great place to live!

It's not surprising that the majority of our residents remain in the Portland area following graduation. Surrounded by mountains, flanked by rivers and only an hour from the Pacific Ocean, Portland offers a wide variety of outdoor activities, from hiking and biking to vineyards and beaches. With snow-capped Mt. Hood just sixty miles to the east, Portlanders have access to one of the nation's longest ski seasons. Portland also enjoys a temperate climate with sunny, dry summers and mild winters. Residents live in any number of our diverse Portland neighborhoods based on their individual lifestyles -- whether it is in the close-in and hip Pearl District or in a suburban neighborhood in the greater metropolitan area.

For more information

Marcia Kurtz, Program Coordinator

Address:
Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center
Graduate Medical Education (GME)
1015 N.W. 22nd Ave.
Portland OR 97210

Phone: 503-413-7036 or
email