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 Medicine Residency Program at Legacy Health, the largest locally owned, nonprofit health system in the Portland/Vancouver area, was founded in 1958 with the goal of training 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 major clinical teaching site for Oregon Health & Science University, our residents have hands-on experience firmly rooted in academic medicine. Our resident rotations offer an integrated, comprehensive curriculum that includes frequent interaction with our knowledgeable faculty, renowned professors, third- and fourth-year medical students and a variety of fellows.

Our internal medicine residency program is located within two urban Portland hospitals, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center and Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.  Although located only 2.5 miles apart, each hospital serves a unique patient population. Our residents rotate through both hospitals and therefore are able to gain experience in each setting.

 Legacy Emanuel is often described as serving Portland’s inner-city or underserved populations and is strongly committed to the community it serves.  It is a designated Level I Trauma Center and also home to the only burn center between Seattle and Sacramento. Legacy Good Samaritan serves a more gentrified population and is home to the Legacy Transplant Service, Legacy Cancer Institute, Legacy Devers Eye Institute and has Oregon’s first and only Urgent Care co-located within a hospital Emergency Department.

Our faculty and residents hail from all corners of the country and from both MD and DO medical schools as well as from international medical schools. See our current 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

Our flexible curriculum allows residents to design their electives with an eye toward their ultimate career choice, whether it be inpatient medicine, outpatient medicine or fellowship training.

Inpatient teaching is an integral part of our two urban hospitals which are distinct learning environments. They are conveniently located just minutes from each other and are fully connected with EPIC, our electronic medical record system.

Our two outpatient teaching clinics, Legacy Medical Group - Good Samaritan and Legacy Medical Group - Emanuel, each serve a unique patient population and both use the innovative medical home model for patient care.

Selective (required mixture of inpatient and outpatient specialty experiences) and elective rotations provide experiences in a variety of medical sub-specialties throughout all three years of residency.  In addition there are opportunities for on-site or off-site elective rotations with a variety of physicians at Legacy Health as well as in the greater medical community.

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.

The Legacy Internal Medicine Residency Program has diverse training opportunities with outstanding faculty. Education offerings encompasses wide reaching interests ranging from clinical decision-making and medical informatics to sleep medicine. Focus is given to IM board review content.

Our program has instituted an Academic Half Day which takes place each Wednesday in place of the more traditional daily noon conferences.  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. We believe learning should be invigorating and fun. Getting everyone together in the same room each week fosters learning and helps build camaraderie.

Our Medical Grand Rounds presentations are selected for their educational value and topic interest. Presentations include regular Mortality and Morbidity talks and Autopsy Grand Rounds highlighting clinical findings. Sub-specialists give Grand Rounds talks focused on evidence based medicine, and residents are given opportunity to present case-based Noon Reports. A robust visiting professor program hosts some of the nation’s best-known physician educators.

Each resident in our program completes four scholarly activities during the course of their residency. These scholarship requirements include a scholarship project, a quality improvement project, a senior grand rounds presentation and a journal club presentation. The program strongly supports residents who pursue medical research and participation in the annual American College of Physician (ACP) Associates Competition. Read more about our housestaff participation in the ACP Competition.

Awareness of resident well-being and the need for time away from work has resulted in the development of four off-campus resident retreats each year.   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 recharging the mind.

Graduates of the program have taken a variety of professional routes in widely-divergent geographic areas. And we are happy to say that many choose to remain at Legacy Health. About half pursue careers as hospitalists. Over the years, about twenty percent have entered 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 about our alumnus’ lives after residency.

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 longest ski seasons in the country. 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. Read more about why we think Portland is the best!

Thank you for taking a look at what the Legacy IM Residency Program offers. If it feels like a fit for your career goals, please apply to our program through your ERAS application. We would love to meet you! Here’s how to apply.