Letters
Letter from the Chair
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased that you are considering ECU/ECU Health Internal Medicine for your post-graduate residency training. One of the most important and satisfying missions of our department and indeed our entire institution is the training of our residents. Our department offers a teaching program with a long tradition of developing physicians of the highest caliber. We are committed to excellence and, to this end, we have developed a quality program that features a superb clinical training environment, outstanding educators, and curricula that provides our trainees with the skills and knowledge base that ensure success in their chosen careers.
The department and trainees both agree that one of the most important aspects of the ECU/ECU Health IM program is our academic philosophy – to encourage the development of outstanding doctors by providing proper education in clinical medicine. The value our patients put on their physician’s skills, knowledge and compassion is immeasurable; thus we train you to practice as the kind of doctor that can be trusted.
The success of any training program starts with the faculty. Our Department is determined to have the finest clinicians and educators. The residents in the program benefit from working with our dedicated faculty that hold top leadership positions in many national organizations including the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, & Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine. Although our resident education is highly endorsed, our strengths lie in the ability to integrate this world-class teaching from our faculty at ECU Physicians with a healthy work environment.
We endorse a categorical Internal Medicine program but also have combined training programs in Medicine/Emergency Medicine, Medicine/Pediatrics and Medicine/Psychiatry. Many of our graduates gravitate toward careers in primary care while others choose to pursue further training in subspecialty fellowship programs. Some follow the private practice route and others have ventured on with an academic career. We are proud of the fact that graduates of our program have been successful in pursuing their career goals in all of these areas.
I personally appreciate the privilege of recruiting potential residents and look forward to welcoming them to our ECU Internal Medicine family. We attract the finest residents from both osteopathic and allopathic schools of medicine. Training in our award-winning facilities and outpatient clinical sites is truly special. You will be working in a top cancer center, cardiovascular center, and specialty care facilities for veterans. Residents care for a wide variety of patients with a healthy mixture of conditions specific to internal medicine.
The healthcare industry is at a critical juncture that is ever-changing, thus we are constantly reviewing our program to improve the quality of our educational experience and to meet the personal needs of our trainees. The opportunity for our residents to develop friendships while working autonomously as part of a medical team is striking. In addition, we are committed to staying on the cutting edge of medicine- providing our trainees with knowledge and skills in evidence based medicine, computer competency with the use of electronic information systems, and the most recent advances in medical science and ethics.
For all of these reasons, graduates of our program leave with the utmost confidence in their abilities and the memories of superb role models- tools that will serve them well throughout their careers. We look forward to seeing you here at ECU/ECU Health Medical Center.
Sincerely,
Paul Bolin, Jr., MD
Chairman of Department of Internal Medicine
Letter from the Program Director
“Where are you from?” There is a world of complexity tangled in these simple words. For some the answer is easy and natural, for others the answer is uncertain and knotty. The dialogue can be about safety or distrust or belonging or exclusion. I like to hope this question can be a beginning.
“Where are you from?” Here is my start- I was born in Memphis, raised in Puerto Rico, and since 1995, have lived in Tarboro, NC. I volunteered for a year in Kenya before starting a fellowship. I spent over ten years in private practice and now work at our large modern tertiary care regional medical center. My global experiences help me to begin to grasp the world of complexity in our team of faculty, residents, and staff- whose mission is to provide outstanding care. There is a parallel world of heterogeneity in the 1.4 million people who look to ECU/Vidant for medical services. To begin to address the diverse needs of our patients, we start with a rigorous training environment that is based in a culture of caring. We start with education and professionalism and skill development. We start with residents who are curious and collegial and insightful and who will be prepared for a world of opportunity.
“Where are you from?” There is a world of composition embedded in this common expression. Ending a sentence with a preposition is an improper but ordinary habit- few of us take issue with. “From where are you?” can be unaccustomed and academic. I hope there is connection in these questions.
“Where are you from?” Families come here from their small communities spread out over 29 counties. People come here from their homes and visit the ED 275,000 times every year. Relatives are referred here. Folks come here because illness happens to them. So can poverty and education and addiction and success. The composition of our world is complex. Our training program is by necessity a team-centered approach designed to prepare residents for these challenges. We connect with patients through evidence-based standards, and formal algorithms, and precise details, and regular communication, and a world of clinical experience so that our care can be safe and effective. And familiar.
Where are you from? Here at ECU/Vidant we are from a world of complex composition. We are from a world of beginnings. Come and be about making a world of difference. Come and be from here.
William Leland, MD
Program Director Internal Medicine Residency
Gastroenterology
East Carolina University/Vidant Health