Residency training has at its core to expose and educate physicians on the complexities of the specialty. Rush University Medical Center has two mandates: excellence in patient care and a strong focus on education. The program is part of a university system with all primary and specialty assistance available at all hours of the day or night. Physical medicine and rehabilitation is a popular department in the university, evidenced by its frequent visitors from outside schools and rotations from within, including the departments of anesthesiology (pain fellows), geriatrics, neurology, internal medicine and students from the physician assistant studies program at Rush.

  

The department is intent on providing a balanced set of inpatient and outpatient venues with care at the main campus, spinal cord experience at Hines Veteran’s Administration Hospital, plus time at Cook Country and University of Illinois Medical Center. This broad exposure facilitates a broad swath of mentors, patients and pathology. In addition, there are another four rehab programs in Chicago permitting elective time with many world-class practitioners.

 

Additional educational time is identified for mandatory didactics every week (from the actual specialists in the field), Journal club, weekly chapter reviews, plus courses in gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, prosthetics and orthotics, as well as electrodiagnostic medicine. Additional months are available in sports medicine, interventional pain management, pelvic floor dysfunction and musculoskeletal disorders.

 

As a backdrop to the program is one of the most exciting, culturally diverse, sports-rich, friendly cities in the country — Chicago.

 

James Young, MD
Residency Program Director