UHN/SHS Hospital Medicine Clinical Fellowship Program

According to the Society of Hospital Medicine (formerly the National Association of Inpatient Physicians), hospitalists are physicians whose primary professional activity is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Their activities include patient care, research and leadership related to hospital care.

In contrast to the United States, the majority of hospitalists in Canada are family medicine trained. The remainder include practitioners of general internal medicine, medical subspecialists, and pediatrics. While many have some training in the care of hospitalized patients, most lack formal training in areas that are considered vital to hospitalists. These areas include health care delivery system issues, continuum of care issues and end of life/palliative care.

Patients admitted to the hospital today are older, have more co-morbidities and often require coordinated care from a multidisciplinary health care team. Providing excellent, resource sensitive, hospital care to these patients requires a certain skill set that is not usually covered in traditional graduate medical training programs. In addition, acquiring these skills will make one a highly desirable candidate for a leadership position in a community based or academic hospitalist program.

If you are an enthusiastic, hardworking Family Medicine or Internal Medicine trained physician who enjoys acute care medicine and wants to strengthen your hospital based skills, you should apply to this fellowship. While international medical graduates will be considered, preference will be given to North American trained physicians especially those holding a license to practice in Canada.

In addition to caring for the demographic that reflects the average community inpatient ward (heart failure, COPD, geriatrics, general infectious disease, NSTEMI), you will have an opportunity to develop skills caring for patients with cancer (TGH), patients with advanced liver disease (TGH & TWH), red blood cell disorders (TGH), orthopaedic injury (SHS) and addictions (TWH). Recent graduates have found that the competencies they have developed caring for these populations have facilitated employment after the fellowship program as many community hospitals find that expertise with these patient populations to be an asset.