The primary care residency track in the Department of Medicine’s Internal Medicine Residency program is designed to educate the next generation of primary care physicians to deliver holistic, evidence-based care that is savvy to the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system.

Residency is, first and foremost, about becoming a great doctor—a person who deeply understands the needs of others and engages in all aspects of healthcare, including patients’ wishes about their care and their ability to cope with illness.

Great doctors learn through observation, from feedback, and through trial and error about how to most effectively heal the most challenging patients. This process may include cure, palliation, or rehabilitation, and in every case provides comfort and assistance to those adapting to disease.

Physicians in our primary care residency take on the intense challenge of providing the highest-quality, evidence-based healthcare to underserved communities—men and women who have challenging lives, limited resources, and significant personal complexities that complicate health and wellness.

We understand that to make things better in the long run, our program must not only prepare physicians to care for these communities, but also to be role models, contribute new knowledge, and lead innovation within healthcare systems and teaching teams. Our moral imperative is that underserved patients have a right to the best possible healthcare, based on the latest evidence, and tailored to the individual needs and preferences of each patient.

Our residents care for patients in three types of hospital systems—private, municipal, and federal—and in both community- and hospital-based clinics. They rotate at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health Gouverneur, and VA NY Harbor Healthcare System.

Our residents experience meeting the rigorous demands of a diverse group of patients from around the world, who seek treatment for both common and rare diseases. These experiences prepare them to make confident, evidence-based decisions in busy clinical settings, as well as to be effective agents of change.

Physicians who train in our program go on to discover new ways to provide the best care to the most vulnerable patients and improve the health, wellness, and lives of underserved patients and communities.

Innovative Educational Methods

Our world-class primary care faculty provide focused training in biopsychosocial medicine through lectures, as well as real-time intensive feedback, so that residents on the primary care residency track are prepared to handle any patient with any problem.

We know that to change communities, residents must have the ability to lead and teach, convince different groups of people to change, and analyze and improve complex systems of care. Because of this, we use interactive teaching techniques and intensive clinical experience to empower our residents to direct their own learning process.

During training, residents complete four significant projects that are designed to expand core clinical knowledge, increase exposure to new research tools, and encourage collaboration with peers and faculty mentors. They also have the chance to present research at national and international conferences and publish in well-known publications.

Our graduates go on to be clinician–educators; public health researchers; chairs, chiefs, and directors of academic programs; directors of community health clinics; and leaders of local, state, and national departments of health.