This year’s Internal Medicine Residency Chat, broadcast to an audience of around 100, introduced prospective residents to a Stanford life.  Each year a panel including both doctors (like Ronald Witteles, MD, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine) and current residents at Stanford answers questions about the Stanford Internal Medicine Residency program, as well as basic lifestyle and work-life balance issues.

The major theme of this year’s chat seemed to be diversity: diversity of patients, diversity of opportunities, and diversity of colleagues.  Current chief resident Linda Geng, MD, PhD, spoke warmly of her experience in the SIM (Stanford Internal Medicine) clinic, discussing the wide breadth of patients and cases, with so many languages spoken and patients from so many walks of life.  Neera Ahuja, MD, clinical professor of medicine, agreed, explaining that at the hospital you might treat a homeless patient and then walk next door and treat a tech CEO.  Diversity, Witteles explained, is “not something you can read about in a book—it’s something you need to experience.”

Current residents also discussed what attracted them to Stanford.  Resident Gabriela Spencer Bonilla, MD, said she felt comfortable and connected to the leadership here, which helped her make her decision.  Resident Adrian Castillo, MD, mentioned the “top-notch clinical training” and emphasized the extra-clinical activities like research that Stanford encourages through events like the Residency Research Symposium. 

Questions were also asked about the future of Stanford Medicine: Robert Harrington, MD, Arthur Bloomfield professor of medicine and chair of the department of medicine, discussed the new hospital, and Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane provostial professor of medicine, emphasized the innovative spirit of Stanford: “The most astonishing thing is how the future unfolds,” he explained. 

The panelists were:

Robert Harrington, MD, chair of the department and professor of medicine

Errol Ozdalga, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine

Angela Rogers, MD, assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine

Neera Ahuja, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine

Ron Witteles, MD, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine

Wendy Caceres, MD, clinical associate professor of primary care and population health

Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, professor of medicine

Chief Resident Linda Geng, MD, PhD

Resident Gabriela Spencer Bonilla, MD

Resident Adrian Castillo, MD