The following conferences and rounds provide residents with ample opportunity to discuss clinical cases, review evidence-based care guidelines, and learn from senior faculty.

Noon Conference: Daily conferences, held at Mondays-Thursdays at noon at Duke Hospital DN 2002, cover many clinical topics throughout the academic year. Topics for noon conferences include:

• Journal Club: With guidance from a faculty member and the chief residents, one of the residents leads the group in a discussion of a recent prominent article in the literature.
• Morbidity and Mortality: One of the residents presents the case from a recent patient. This monthly conference emphasizes our role in improving patient care and the quality of medical education. Radiology and Pathology may also participate in this conference, and a faculty member facilitates key learning points from the case.
• Clinical Pharmacology: Clinical pharmacists and faculty members highlight important areas of pharmacology. Recent topics have included pain management, common adverse drug reactions, anticoagulation, and immunosuppressive medications.
• Gallops: Residents from services at all the hospitals and ambulatory sites bring interesting ECGs and radiology findings from recent cases.
• SAR Talks: Each senior resident give a noon conference lecture on a topic of his or her choice. The presenting resident works closely with a faculty advisor. These talks range from research discussions to in-depth reviews of a topic.
• EKG: In monthly EKG rounds, one of our cardiology attendings reviews interesting EKGs and case presentations.
• Radiology: One of our radiologists reviews interesting radiology cases with housestaff.
• Board Review: These monthly sessions focus on board preparation.
• Career and Development Series: Faculty members speak to housestaff on interviewing, contract negotiation, patient interaction, conflict resolution, and other relevant topics.
• Emergency Lecture Series: This series of topics is presented during noon conferences over a six-week period at the beginning of each academic year (July through most of August). It is designed to prepare housestaff for urgent scenarios that may occur while covering patients on an inpatient service. Topics range from chest pain, GI bleed, and respiratory distress to acute pain management and antibiotic choices. The lectures benefit everyone from interns to upper-level residents.

Grand Rounds: Housestaff and faculty attend the weekly standing-room-only Department of Medicine Grand Rounds each Friday morning. This topic- and case-based presentation highlights the science of clinical medicine to provide high-interest, educational weekly topics. Find recent grand rounds topics on the MedicineNews blog.

Chair’s Conference: In Chair's Conferences, which occur Fridays at 12pm at Duke Hospital DN 2002, a resident presents an unknown case to our department chair, Dr. Mary Klotman, and she works through the case with the assistance of the other residents. All residents, interns, and students attend this conference. 

Resident Report: This daily conference is held Monday through Thursday at both Duke Hospital and the Durham VA Medical Center.

• Duke Medical Center Resident Report: Senior residents on the General Medicine service meet Monday through Thursday to discuss interesting or perplexing cases under the guidance of the Chief Resident and one of our senior faculty. Report also includes the identification, discussion and critical review of literature that helps guide patient-care practices.
• Durham VA Medical Center Report: Junior residents on the General Medicine service meet Monday through Thursday to discuss interesting or perplexing cases under the guidance of the VA Chief Resident and a senior faculty member. Evidence-based medicine and critical review of the literature are a focus of the DVAMC Resident Report.
• Intern Report at Duke Medical Center and DVAMC: Occurring weekly, this conference is open to all interns on inpatient rotations. This conference allows residents to systematically work through challenging cases while focusing on differential diagnosis and management. A Chief Resident and a faculty member chair this conference.
• Durham Regional Hospital Resident Report: Housestaff working at Durham Regional Hospital, as well as those on Ambulatory Medicine Rotations, attend this conference. It is chaired by the DRH Chief Resident and senior faculty and consists of case presentations by housestaff or a discussion of key topics in Internal Medicine.

Attending Rounds: Bedside teaching rounds are conducted on the inpatient clinical services seven days a week. Attending rounds emphasize developing fundamental clinical skills, diagnostic reasoning, pathophysiology, and professionalism. Additional emphasis is placed on evidence-based medicine and on creating an environment that optimizes resident learning and patient care.

Night Sign Outs: As part of our commitment to housestaff education, the chief residents and assistant chief residents come in every night to discuss admissions with the on-call teams. Night sign outs are an opportunity to reflect on the scope of problems encountered that day, provide teaching with critical review of the literature, assist the residents in thinking about complex cases, and to help with procedures that need to be done. This Duke tradition is highly regarded by everyone involved and is one of the many features that sets our program apart from other programs.

Clinic Report: Residents at each clinic site (VA, Duke Clinic, and Duke General Internal Medicine) participate in this conference series that occurs twice a month before continuity clinic. This three-year curriculum covers essential topics in ambulatory care medicine presented by clinic attendings and residents. 

Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Conferences: This six-part conference series focuses on topics key to both internal medicine and pediatrics residents and is geared toward residents in the Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Program.

Combined Medicine-Psychiatry Conferences: This quarterly conference series presents topics key to both internal medicine and psychiatry and is geared toward residents in the Combined Medicine-Psychiatry Program.

EM/IM: This quarterly series for internal medicine and emergency medicine residents discusses evidence-based approaches to care for patients as they transition from the emergency department and the general medicine floors.

Health Policy Series: This is an 18-part conference series focusing on Health Policy. 

Research Conferences: The Clinical Implications of Basic Research / Mechanisms of Disease Series and Department of Medicine Research Conference both feature faculty research from throughout the department. See the Research Conferences page for more details.