Combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics Residency
About the Loyola Medicine Med-Peds Residency
With its first graduating class beginning their training in 1982, the Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program has been growing its roots at Loyola for over 30 years.
Loyola has a strong Med-Peds presence. The Loyola Med-Peds family includes over thirty full-time Med-Peds trained faculty working in outpatient clinics, inpatient wards, and medical education. Med-Peds-trained faculty serve as directors of Inpatient Pediatrics, Pediatric Critical Care, Institutional Quality and Safety, the Internal Medicine Clerkship, and the Office of Graduate Medical Education. Even the current Chief Medical Officer is a Med-Peds physician! We benefit from an outstanding working relationship between our core programs and their corresponding departments. Transitions of care are uniquely facilitated at our institution because of the inter-departmental relationships and impact of the Med-Peds community.
Scenes from the 2022 Med-Peds Fare-Welcome
The educational philosophies of the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics are similar. Both adult and pediatric patients are admitted to resident-run services. Patient-centered teaching rounds occur daily with your attending. Daily rounds contain elements of both didactic teaching and bedside learning. Resident patients are not managed by private attendings at Loyola. Our residents are continuously involved in medical student education and have access to multiple teaching opportunities in the Stritch School of Medicine.
Fellowship Match Day 2021
Both departments have a strong commitment to inpatient and outpatient training and providing high-quality, evidence-based care to a diverse patient population. Your time at Loyola will include everything from caring for extreme premies in a level III NICU to assisting with transitions of care in your clinic to managing LVADs in the CCU. You will rotate from seeing subspecialty patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings to working in a level I Emergency Department. You will provide care to our veterans at Hines VA Hospital, the largest tertiary care VA hospital in the region. We strive to provide you with a training curriculum characterized by the breadth and depth of its experiences.
Loyola Med-Peds residents are held in high regard at our institution and become leaders in the medical community. We have an exceptional rate of Med-Peds resident selection as categorical Chief Residents. Our graduates consistently attain success above national averages on board certifications. We will help you become an outstanding Internist and Pediatrician.
Be a Part of the Family!
Med-Peds Chili Cook-Off 2023: It's Back!
Welcome from the Program Directors
Hello! Thanks for your interest in Loyola's combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency program.
When I matched into Med-Peds training at Loyola, I was ecstatic. However, even the overwhelmingly positive emotions I felt at that time could not have prepared me for the amazing experiences I've had since arriving on campus in 2003.
From the cutting-edge patient care to the endless teaching and learning opportunities, I remain enamored with the Loyola culture. Following my residency, I was honored to spend a year as Internal Medicine Chief Resident before transitioning into a role as Associate Program Director. I stayed on as Associate Program Director for several years but was thrilled by the opportunity to assume the responsibilities of program directorship in 2014.
I enjoy delivering care to patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings and maintaining a close relationship with the residents I supervise in continuity clinic. In fact, relationships are one of the core reasons for my love of this institution in general and this residency program in particular.
The Loyola Med-Peds Residency Program is as dynamic an entity as its categorical counterparts. The educational mission of the institution is reflected in our dedication to providing an enriching, evidence-based, well-rounded training experience. We rely heavily on resident feedback to keep our program structure congruent with the needs of today's learners. Your outstanding preparation for future endeavors is reflected in our terrific board pass rates, as well as the diverse career choices and practice locations of our alumni.
As you consider your options for residency training, I hope you will take a close look at the Loyola family. I know you will like what you see!
Nate Derhammer, MD, FAAP, FACP
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Program Director, Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Residency
Message from the Associate Program Director
Welcome!
My name is Ellen Parker and I am the Associate Program Director for the Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program at Loyola University Medical Center. I’m originally from the Chicagoland area but attended undergraduate and medical school in Omaha, Nebraska, at Creighton University. I graduated in 2012 and became a part of the Loyola Med-Peds Family, completing my residency here in 2016. Afterwards, I followed in the footsteps of many Loyola Med-Peds alumni and completed a Chief year in the Department of Pediatrics.
My clinical practice at Loyola is diverse. I see kids and adults in a Loyola Med-Peds Primary Care Clinic in Oak Park, IL and Elmhurst, IL and am able to attend on inpatient medicine and pediatric services, including the nursery. As part of my academic appointment, I facilitate small groups and mentoring at Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine. I am passionate about graduate medical education, adult learning theory, resiliency, and quality improvement. I love helping trainees navigate residency as it is a busy time in adulthood. Indeed, during my own residency, my wife and I got married and had 2 kids!
I feel blessed to be continuing on the legacy of the Loyola Med-Peds family. We have THE largest Med-Peds faculty in the country, a statistic that you experience every day in your encounters with faculty on the wards and in clinic. Faculty are approachable and dedicated. We seek to train outstanding Internists and Pediatricians, and Loyola’s unique location just outside Chicago’s western city limits ensures diverse urban and suburban clinical encounters during training.
Med-Peds is an amazing career choice. No other residency allows you as many choices on lifestyle and practice type. No other residency affords you so much breadth of training, and nowhere is that more true than at Loyola. Our graduates practice primary care, hospital medicine, urgent care, combined sub-specialty care, academic medicine, and transition medicine. Come see why so many Med-Peds faculty call Loyola home!
Ellen Parker, MD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Associate Program Director, Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Residency
Affiliated Hospitals
Loyola University Medical Center
Loyola University Medical Center is a 550-bed hospital providing comprehensive primary and specialty care to a large, diverse patient population. As the flagship academic institution with the Trinity Health network, Loyola is consistently nationally-ranked in numerous specialties and serves as tertiary and quarternary referral center for high complexity patients. Loyola has robust solid organ and bone marrow transplant programs and offers a large number of specialty units, including coronary care, medical intensive care, neuro-intensive care, burn intensive care, and bone marrow transplantation units.
Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital
Adjacent to Loyola University Medical Center is the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. This facility, sprawled over a 147-acre campus, has an ambulatory care center, substance abuse clinic and specialty units for rehabilitation medicine, geriatric medicine and intensive care. Hines is a tertiary care referral center within the Veterans Administration network and provide exposure to a wide range of patients and medical conditions.
Loyola Medicine Children's Hospital
Located on the Loyola University Medical Center campus, the 125-bed Loyola Medicine Children's Hospital offers expert-level pediatric services from more than 40 medical and surgical specialties and delivers care to a broad geographic region of patients with all levels of complexity and acuity.
A Med-Peds resident can expect to spend approximately 30% of their inpatient medicine months at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and all of their inpatient pediatric months at the Loyola Medicine Children's Hospital.
Loyola Med-Peds High-Yield Residency FAQs
Why Med-Peds? Why not (“categorical”) Medicine or Peds alone? Why not Family Medicine?
The community of Med-Peds comprises an enthusiastic and intelligent group of compassionate individuals who value both breadth and depth, systematic thinking, and navigating complex interpersonal dynamics. We are among the only group of physicians who can, in the scope of a week, transition from managing a ventilated adult patient with advanced heart failure on dialysis in the CCU to evaluating for syndromic facies on a minutes-old, premature neonate in the OR. Neither medicine nor pediatrics alone provides comparable exposure to the vast array of pathology and diverse patient demographics seen as a med/peds physician. Family Medicine is an excellent alternative option that is as well-oriented to outpatient medicine as Med-Peds training. Since Med-Peds is four years, though (and Family Med is three), it involves two years of Medicine and two years of Pediatrics in total, with board certification in both subspecialties and endless career trajectories from primary care to dual subspecialization. Family Medicine training generally has less exposure to pediatrics overall (months rather than years), with less overall ICU time on both sides.
What is the general resident culture at Loyola? What makes Loyola residents unique?
The Loyola institutional culture is rooted in the progressive Jesuit traditions of service, education, and inclusivity. It attracts compassionate and academic individuals from all backgrounds who have interests in serving under-resourced communities, educating medical students, residents, and fellows, and creating a welcoming and safe environment for all patients and staff. These values are reflected in our residents as well: you would be hard-pressed to find a more dedicated, hardworking, and selfless group of people alongside whom to train. On the busiest of days, you’ll find Loyola residents helping their colleagues with an admission, a central line, or tying up loose social ends to help each other leave on time. We are a training program with a unique balance of high acuity and high volume with no shortage of grace and altruism.
What is the “call schedule” for Loyola residents?
The word “call” has differing meanings at different institutions. Most often, at our institution, “call” for Medicine and Pediatrics residents implies physical, in-house presence with some component of work overnight. “Night float” should be distinguished from “call” as well. On the medicine side, we do about 4-6 weeks of “night float,” which is consistent, dedicated in-house overnight work, usually from 5 PM (or 6 PM) to 6 AM. You work for two weeks total, six days in a row, with Friday nights off. On Fridays overnight, one daytime person from each service rotation (e.g., hematology service, hepatology service, bone marrow transplant, general medicine, etc.) will do a 24-hour shift (called a “ROC” or random-on-call) to allow the typical night float resident to have the evening off. The typical night float resident will return to work on Saturday evening. Each service resident will have only one 24-hour shift per service month (four-week block). On the Pediatrics side, we have a similar system for night float, with coverage of general pediatrics (floor) with a two-week total (six days in a week) dedicated nighttime senior and intern, who get either Saturday or Sunday night off. The daytime Peds seniors will do a 28-hour (i.e., 24 + 4, per ACGME rules) shift on either Saturday or Sunday to allow the nighttime senior a night off. Otherwise, on PICU and NICU, we do in-house, 28-hour call every four days. This system is called “q4 call,” which means every four days, you will work a 28-hour in-house shift. The other days are typically 7 AM - 4 PM.
How often do Med-Peds residents transition between Medicine and Pediatrics?
We switch “sides” every four months, meaning each academic year will consist of 8 months of one side (Medicine or Peds) and 4 months of the other. Each year will be either “Medicine-heavy” or “Peds-heavy.”
How long is the internship for Med-Peds residents?
Internship at Loyola is 16 months long. This allows for 8 months of Medicine and 8 months of Pediatrics prior to transitioning to the senior resident role. After your first academic year (i.e., 12 months), you will spend four months as a “superintern,” wherein, even though you are a PGY-2 resident (with PGY-2 salary), you serve the role of an intern. Categorical Medicine and Pediatrics senior residents love having Med-Peds superinterns as interns because they have the efficiency (and knowledge) of a PGY-2 in a PGY-1 role.
How will the pediatric “hospital-within-a-hospital” (HWH) system influence my training?
Chicagoland has no shortage of excellent Med-Peds training programs. What is common among them is the structure of the pediatric facilities -- typically a “hospital-within-a-hospital” system rather than a “freestanding” children’s hospital. There are benefits to both structural frameworks, and the decision is a unique one for each applicant. It’s easy to understand the potential benefits of a freestanding facility, but it is more nuanced to grasp those of HWH facilities and the trade-offs that come with either decision. First off, the Loyola Medicine Children’s Hospital is a 125-bed tertiary-care pediatric hospital, with 36 general inpatient beds, 14 PICU beds, and 50 NICU beds. It is housed within the fourth and fifth floors of Loyola University Medical Center's main hospital building and across the skybridge in the hospital tower. We have a diverse range of pediatric subspecialty offerings along with an accredited fellowship in neonatology (NICU). As a Med-Peds resident, training is going to be a persistent exercise in adaptability -- you’ll be required to make several transitions: from Medicine to Peds, Peds to Medicine, and intern to superintern to senior; each phase/side with distinctive rotations and unique faculty, staff, roles, and responsibilities. The capabilities of your intellect and versatility will be stretched, sometimes uncomfortably (necessary for growth!). Anything that can be done to ease your transition and create a comfortable, consistent atmosphere can help massively. Having a pediatric HWH means one EMR (Epic) across the entire system, both inpatient and outpatient medicine and pediatrics. It means when you’re on a 28-hour PICU call, you can see your categorical and Med-Peds friends on (adult) gen med on the sixth floor, or the coolest nurses in the MICU or CCU on the third floor. It means you can easily seek assistance or “colleague consults” in-person. It also means that, if an advanced pediatric case requires adult hepatology or cardiac electrophysiology consultation, you just call them and have them come to the fourth floor. Having one, massive building where all your training takes place (when not at the VA) creates some element of consistency in a sometimes dizzying career phase. Over the past nearly 40 years, it has created an institution that really understands what it means to be Med-Peds, and is sensitive to our unique strengths. Additionally, as an added example, having no fellows in the PICU creates an opportunity for the senior residents to act as the fellow -- in consultation with your attending, you make the decisions overnight: you change the vent, you make the call to start pressors.
Will working at a religiously-affiliated institution influence my training?
Trinity Health (a Catholic organization) is the parent organization of Loyola Medicine, and Loyola University Medical Center is Loyola Medicine's flagship academic, quaternary-care training site and stands out against the nearly 100 other Trinity Health hospitals in the country. Loyola is consistently ranked in the top five hospitals in the state of Illinois, and we not only have every subspecialty represented, but multiple sub-subspecialties (e.g, hepatology, cardiac electrophysiology, transplant infectious diseases, etc.). We are a major transplant (heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas and bone marrow and stem cell transplants) center for Chicagoland and the country, and are the adult and pediatrics burn referral center for the region. Our patient and resident demographics are exceptionally diverse, comprising people of multiple ethnic backgrounds who speak languages from around the world. Like any other hospital, many patients and many residents have religious affiliations and many do not. If you ask any resident (with or without personal religious affiliations) at Loyola, in Medicine, Peds, or Med-Peds, you’ll find that training at a religiously-affiliated institution has never obstructed or altered patient care negatively, and typically only serves to support patients even better humanistically. As a Jesuit Catholic institution, the mission of Loyola Medicine is to serve and educate – not just our trainees, but our patients and community. We are grounded in the Jesuit values of Cura Personalis (Care of the Whole Person) and Magis (Excellence), traditions that serve us well as socially conscious leaders.
Where do Loyola residents live?
In short, everywhere! Most live within the diverse neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago, and many live in the near-west or far-west suburbs surrounding Loyola. See page 3 of the PDF “An Introduction to Chicagoland & Where to Live” for more detailed information and neighborhood-specific breakdown.
What are the opportunities for procedures and POCUS for residents (vs fellows) at Loyola?
In short, they are endless. Loyola has a reputation for being a robust, high-acuity, and high-volume academic training program for residents that is well-respected in the region and around the country. We consistently match to fellowships at highly-ranked institutions across all subspecialties (in both medicine and pediatrics) and are highly sought after for jobs in both hospital medicine and primary care. One of the reasons our training is respected is because of our high level of autonomy and breadth of clinical exposure. Loyola, particularly on the medicine side, has fellowships in every subspecialty along with multiple sub-subspecialties. With that in mind, we are still respected as a “resident-run” institution, meaning that the senior residents along with the interns are responsible for the vast majority of direct patient care on a daily basis. This includes performing several procedures, of which there is no shortage given the complex patients at Loyola. Residents, with the assistance of fellows or co-residents when necessary, routinely perform ABGs, nasogastric tube insertion, central line insertion, arterial line insertion, paracentesis, and many others. You’ll be assisted the first few times until you have attained the minimum number for competence (along with personal comfort in performing them independently), after which time you will perform the procedures with only nursing assistance. We also have a robust point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum, and leadership that is passionate about preparing us to be competent with POCUS. Residents are routinely seen on gen med and MICU/CCU performing POCUS on patients to evaluate rapidly and grossly for global myocardial function along with the presence of pulmonary edema, pleural effusions, pericardial effusions (and tamponade), ascites, and DVTs, all using only bedside ultrasound.
Do Loyola residents pay for parking?
All Med-Peds residents park on the north end of the medical center campus in a parking lot immediately adjacent to the main hospital. Parking is hardly ever an issue. There are multiple garages and other lots throughout the campus that can be parked in for an additional fee (per use). Otherwise, a fee is taken out of your paycheck monthly (~$45 currently), and you can park in that lot 24/7 with your decal.
Check out our national resident association for even more info: