Program Director's Welcome
The University of Colorado Internal Medicine Residency Program is one of the premier Medicine training programs in the country. We provide innovative educational opportunities and exceptional clinical training to future internists and subspecialists. Our goal is to assure that all our graduates are comfortable, confident, and highly capable in all aspects of medicine. We produce doctors who are patient-centered, uniquely skilled leaders in their fields.
We pride ourselves on providing trainees with the freedom to individualize their curricular content according to their educational needs and their desired path forward in medicine. This resident-centered approach is exemplified by our educational matrix. Residents match into one of four training tracks: Categorical, Primary Care, Hospitalist, or Physician-Scientist. At the beginning of their second year, all residents then choose one of five deep-dive educational Pathways: Research/Investigation, Medical Education, Health Equity, Advocacy, and Policy, our Medical Leaders Program, or Global Health. Every one of the five Pathways is open to members of each of the four Tracks, allowing for an individualized experience and the opportunity to spend time with people who have similar interests and pursuits. Residents in each of these Tracks and Pathways work side by side in our unique three-hospital system where you’ll experience the practice of medicine in three different environments with three entirely different patient populations. You'll spend equal time at our quaternary referral University Hospital (UCHealth), a top-10 safety net hospital (Denver Health), and a large VA Health System (Eastern Colorado VA).
We also place a high value on educational innovation. Our ‘4+4’ block model is unique across the country. It combines dedicated time on busy ward rotations – the backbone of all internal medicine training – alternating with uninterrupted months in outpatient clinic where learners can focus on both primary care and subspecialty outpatient medicine. Interwoven within these base apprenticeship experiences is time for the electives you are interested in along with protected time for scholarship, quality improvement work, and workshop-based, educational half days where several hundred educational hours are delivered using a hands on, small group approach. These experiences are thoughtfully aligned in a way that makes a busy and robust residency experience enjoyable and exciting. You’ll come out of Colorado as a highly skilled, supremely confident, independent doctor...and you’ll be cared for and have fun while you do it!
We have several aims at the University of Colorado. We aim to provide residents an individualized training experience in a diversity of training environments which will allow them to focus on their unique aspirations to prepare them for their future careers and lives. We aim to provide a robust clinical training experience that will adequately prepare every resident for any future challenge. We aim to instill in our residents the qualities of a physician that we value most: empathy, inquiry, dedication, humility, responsibility, and professionalism to best prepare them to care for the communities they will serve. We aim to create a training environment that values, ensures, and supports diversity so that we can reflect and better serve our trainees and our community. We aim to train future leaders in Internal Medicine.
Our mission is for each resident to fully realize his or her potential. Our graduates select a variety of career paths and are well-positioned to impact positive change in areas such as academics, patient care, education, research, and public policy. Our program strives to prepare graduates to excel in their pivotal roles as physicians, researchers, teachers, and community leaders. I’m excited to show you what we have to offer and how we can help you to become the doctor you have always imagined.
Geoff Connors, MD, FACP
Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program
Vice Chair of Education, Department of Medicine