Welcome to the Division of General Internal Medicine
The Division of General Internal Medicine provides clinical care to adults and educational direction to students at the Brody School of Medicine and residents in multiple training programs. We are committed to these services for the patients of eastern North Carolina and for our trainees at all levels.
Our general internists provide primary and comprehensive medical care for adults. We have a robust outpatient clinic where we provide primary medical care, chronic disease management, and urgent care services. We also have several specialty clinics, including a Geriatrics Clinic led by our board-certified Geriatrician, a regional Anticoagulation Clinic, and a combined Internal Medicine-Psychiatry Clinic. We deliver all of this this care both as individual faculty practices and in collaboration with our resident physicians in the Department of Internal Medicine.
Our Division also attends on and supervises our academic inpatient medical service, including a growing Internal Medicine Consult service. In addition, our faculty oversee our outpatient Geriatrics rotation, where we care for patients at three local nursing home facilities. This comprehensive approach to patient care facilitates a seamless treatment program between the inpatient and outpatient settings.
Education is at the core of our mission in the Division of Internal Medicine, and our faculty serve in multiple teaching roles for medical students and residents, including as small group facilitators, medical student class co-directors, and as program director. We also recognize the importance of a strong leadership presence in medicine; we serve as medical directors for hospital units, participate on several ECU Health and ECU Health Medical Center committees, provide leadership in the Brody School of Medicine Teachers of Quality Academy, and our faculty have recently served as Chief of Staff of the Vidant Medical Center.
Clinical and translational research is also an important component of our mission, and current or recent research areas for faculty and residents include hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemia, anticoagulation, preventative care, and quality improvement. Working in partnership with the ECU Nephrology Research Lab, our faculty serve as primary investigators for the ECU sites in the NIH-funded SPRINT Hypertension trial and the NIH-funded ASPREE trial.
We welcome the opportunity to talk with you more about who we are and what we do. Please take a moment to review our faculty page which highlights our diverse group of physician educators.
About Us
The Division of General Internal Medicine provides clinical care to adults and educational direction to students and residents at the Brody School of Medicine. We are committed to these services for the patients and the trainees in eastern North Carolina.
The division provides the following services:
- Provide primary and comprehensive medical care for adults.
- Offer care that ranges from primary care and health maintenance to management of multi-system illnesses.
- Have access to the broad range of medical consultants throughout ECU Physicians.
- General Internal Medicine is also responsible for supervision of the bulk of inpatient general medical care. Our faculty attend on the inpatient services year-round, helping to facilitate a seamless treatment program between the inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Our Clinic houses a regional Anticoagulation Clinic for patients taking Warfarin.
- Faculty in general medicine offer some unique specialized care. There are individuals specially trained and certified in the practice of geriatrics, hypertension,diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
James R. Powell, MDDivision Chief
Clinical Professor of Medicine