Internal Medicine Residency Lubbock

The curriculum provides progressive responsibility across inpatient, critical care, emergency, ambulatory, consultation and subspecialty settings. Exact block assignments may be adjusted annually to meet educational and service needs.

Didactics and Board Preparation

Residents participate in protected educational conferences, resident report and case-based learning. The conference calendar includes small-group noon sessions and a dedicated half-day education session each month, with content spanning core internal medicine, board preparation and In-Training Examination review, morbidity and mortality, journal club, ambulatory clinic conference, quality improvement, patient safety, research and resident teaching. Residents are expected to maintain strong conference attendance and active participation.

Electives, Research and Customized Experiences

Electives may include Allergy, Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Rheumatology, Oncology/Cancer Center, Research, Pulmonary Procedures, Electrophysiology, Heart Failure and Heart Station, with other experiences considered individually. PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents may request one customized rotation with an approved educational plan and faculty supervision. Research electives require a defined proposal and faculty mentor, and residents continue required conferences and continuity clinic during the experience. Approved away rotations are available under institutional and program policy.

Board Review - Value packed lectures with emphasis on ITE objectives, board testing techniques and review of multiple choice questions.

House Staff Meeting - A monthly meeting of all TTUHSC residents sponsored by the office of GME. This meeting serves to update house staff on important institutional issues. Elected officers of the house staff serve as liaisons on many institutional committees.

Weekly Report - A case is prepared by a resident in advance of the conference. Emphasis is placed on oral presentation, work-up, and differential diagnosis. The resident delivers a brief, updated aspect of the presentation topic.

Business of Medicine - Emphasis on billing and system based practices of clinical internal medicine.

Patient Safety - Case-based medical conference that emphasizes challenges or adverse outcomes associated with system interactions in medical care.

Journal Club - Residents discuss selected articles. Emphasis is on commentary and critical appraisal of the literature.

Grand Rounds - These are conducted by the Department of Medicine and other institutional faculty as well as visiting professors. Topics include advances in basic and clinical knowledge in many fields on Internal Medicine.

Morbidity and Mortality - A noon conference series where third-year residents present specific cases for presentation under the supervision of a faculty member.

Subspecialty Conference - Each subspecialty division is assigned to a particular month and faculty from that subspecialty give a series of 3 to 4 case-based, interactive conferences.

Have specific questions about the residency experience? Contact our Chief Residents to learn more about the program from those who know it best.

Teaching Sites

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

TTUHSC educates students, provides patient care and conducts biomedical and clinical research. We graduate the most health care professionals in the state of Texas. Nationally recognized for innovative programs, academic achievement, and our cutting-edge research, we are training the next generation of highly qualified health professionals. To date we have trained more than 42,000 health care professionals who are serving patients and driving medical discovery in tangible, life-changing ways – both for the 10 million people in our immediate service area and around the world.

University Medical Center

University Medical Center (UMC) is a 500-bed hospital. It is a public, non- profit facility that serves as the primary teaching hospital for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. UMC also includes a children's hospital
with Level IV NICU, a family-centered birth center, a regional burn center, and the region's only Level 1 Trauma Center. While at UMC, TTUHSC Family Medicine residents take care of hospitalized adults & children, work in the
critical care units, and provide family-centered maternity care in labor & delivery.

Residency Clinics

Resident Continuity-of-Care Clinic

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center's residency program provides primary continuity-of-care experience in the ambulatory internal medicine clinics. All residents spend one half-day per week seeing their own cadre of patients. A nurse is assigned to each resident. This resident/nurse team provides for a quality continuity of care experience for the resident's  patients and promotes team building and professionalism. This system allows the resident to follow the evolution of disorders typically seen by the  internist, to observe the response to outpatient therapy, and to understand the unique comprehensive health care needs of ambulatory patients. Experienced full-time attending faculty supervise the ambulatory training and provide on-site consultation and patient care discussions. There are computers with internet search access and Up To Date®.

Clinic educational conferences are scheduled during clinic twice a month. Core ambulatory topics will be covered with emphasis on reading recent literature, reviewing practice management and reviewing board questions.

VA Outpatient Clinic

Senior residents rotate at the Lubbock Veterans Affairs (VA) Outpatient Clinic. This rotation is one month and provides a valuable outpatient medical experience in a government run managed care system. Residents perform walk-in evaluations of adult patients with a variety of medical diseases with varying complexity and severity. The VA outpatient clinic in Lubbock is a very new facility that offers state of the art diagnostic equipment and electronic medical records. Residents are supervised by full-time VA physician staff.

Ambulatory Care Clinic

Senior residents participate in this one month ambulatory rotation. The rotation is designed to give rotating residents the experience to competently evaluate subspecialty patients under the supervision of a board certified subspecialist. This clinic is scheduled Monday through Friday. 

The following clinics are included:

• Allergy
• Oncology.Hematology
• Gastroenterology
• Pulmonology
• Cardiology
• Chart Review
• Endocrinology

Procedural Experiences

Internal Medicine Residents will learn the indications, contraindications, complications, limitations, and develop technical proficiency in the following procedures:

• ACLS
• Arterial blood sampling
• Arterial line placement
• Arthrocentesis
• Bone marrow aspiration
• Central line placement
• Endotracheal intubation
• Lumbar puncture 
• Paracentesis
• Thoracentesis
• Venous blood sampling

Optional training can occur with the following procedures:

• Pulmonary artery catheterization
• Elective cardioversion
• Treadmill exercise testing

Welcome to the TTUHSC Internal Medicine Residency Program in Lubbock. We are a close-knit, university-based program that combines broad clinical exposure, progressive responsibility, accessible faculty mentorship and meaningful opportunities for scholarship. We are nationally ranked in reputation, research output, and subspecialty percentage and recently graduated our 50^th resident class. Our residents care for a diverse population across West Texas and train in both academic and community settings. 

Whether your goal is general internal medicine, hospital medicine, or fellowship training, we will help you build the clinical judgment, confidence and professional foundation to personally succeed. I am proud of the supportive culture our residents and faculty have created and invite you to learn more about the people and opportunities that make our program special.

J. Drew Payne, DO FACP, ABOM
Program Director
Associate Professor
TTUHSC Internal Medicine Residency Program

The TTUHSC Department of Internal Medicine offers a limited, observation-only experience for qualified medical graduates interested in learning about the U.S. health care system and our academic clinical environment. Observers may attend approved clinical and educational activities but may not provide patient care, perform procedures, enter orders, document in the medical record or receive academic credit. Availability is limited, and placement is not guaranteed.

To request consideration, upload a verified USClinX application to the Internal Medicine Observership Program page. Applicants should not send passports, medical records or other sensitive documents through ordinary email.