Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Medicine Resident Scholarship Program

All categorical residents who wish to pursue high impact projects are invited to participate in the Longitudinal Curriculum for Advanced Scholarship (LOCAS) program, which is directed by Dr. Carlson and Dr. Putman. Details of the LOCAS program:

• Optional mentored two-year program that launches in October of the PGY1 year and concludes in July of the PGY3 year.
• Sixteen accomplished faculty researchers in various “Focus Areas” provide direct mentorship or facilitate mentorship relationships with each resident in their area of interest. Focus Areas include medical specialties such as cardiology and hematology/oncology as well as general medicine and quality improvement.
• During year one, residents participate in didactic sessions about how to design successful resident research projects, perform background research, submit institutional review board applications, and collect and analyze data.
• Year two provides asynchronous content about how to write publishable manuscripts, submit them to academic journals, present findings at national meetings, and navigate the revise and resubmit process.
• Residents present their projects at the annual Department of Medicine Research Day and at the American College of Physicians Annual Abstract Competition.
• Those who complete the program receive a certificate of completion and recognition for their hard work.

Unique to the medicine residency program at MCW is an experiential quality improvement curriculum that stretches through the duration of the program under the directorship of residency program leadership and Dr Wainaina, vice chair for clinical quality. It comprises:

• PGY1: Didactic sessions during which interns learn basic healthcare quality principles and improvement skills that they use to identify and plan improvement projects for patients under their care with mentorship by PGY3s.
• PGY2: Deployment of proposed projects with data support from a dedicated departmental quality and operations team.
• PGY3: PGY1 mentoring, project wrap-up, report-out, scholarly dissemination and if appropriate hand-off for continuity.