Specialized Tracks for Residency Training

The LGBTQ+ Health Track is intended to supplement the clinical training of residents interested in and committed to the whole-person care of sexual and gender minority patients. Through a collaboration with the Eskenazi Health Transgender Health and Wellness Program and other clinical partners in the Indianapolis area, select residents will be offered experiences during residency in clinics that serve the LGBTQ+ community and graduate with advanced skills like gender-affirming medical treatment. In addition to direct clinical experience and supervision, residents will be expected to engage in scholarly and volunteer/advocacy activities promoting health and wellness of the LGBTQ+ community as well as attend didactics teaching topics of advanced competency in the care of these patients. Opportunities for interprofessional collaboration as well as leadership in peer and medical education on LGBTQ+ health topics will also be core to the resident’s experience. The resident’s experience will be facilitated through collaboration with track leadership and an individually assigned mentor with whom the resident will meet at minimum twice annually.

The Chronic Pain Opioid Use Disorder (CPOUD) track is a two year longitudinal experience for residents to augment their training and comfort level with outpatient treatment of chronic pain and opioid addiction.

This includes:

• Understanding what chronic pain is and what it isn’t.
• Learning appropriate use of opioids and how to successfully taper them.
• How to have the hard conversations around this topic.
• A thorough understanding of adjunct treatments and medications for pain and when and how to use them.
• Understanding the neurobiology and complexity of opioid addiction.
• How to use buprenorphine/naloxone for treating OUD in the outpatient setting, both initiation and maintenance.
• Pain management of patients on buprenorphine/suboxone.
• When and how to transition OUD patients to higher levels of care.
• What resources are important for optimal recovery and how to discuss these options with patients.
  
  

We do all of this through a variety of opportunities. The residency has three specialty clinics to give focused exposure to the track goals.

The first and oldest is our Comprehensive Pain Assessment Clinic, where we do in depth assessment of patient with chronic pain and make recommendations for treatment, including appropriate use of opioid therapy. Some patients are followed for a period of time in the CoPAC clinic, some are returned directly to their PCP’s to implement treatment. This clinic is also interprofessional in nature and we routinely have chaplaincy, social work and physical therapy assess patients alongside us.

The second clinic is newer, just a bit older than the track itself. That’s our Buprenorphine Clinic, lovingly referred to as Boop clinic. We start and maintain patients on buprenorphine and help them with their recovery. This clinic is also interprofessional and chaplaincy and peer recovery are important members of that team.

The third clinic is brand new as of 2023. This is the Acupuncture Clinic where we are offering acupuncture as a treatment modality for pain management to our patients. Track residents will have the opportunity to learn some basic protocols and get an introduction to acupuncture as part of their training going forward.

There are also regular track meetings for didactics and journal club as well as the opportunity and expectation of scholarly work which may take a number of forms, such as research, local case presentations, didactics, conference presentations at local or national conferences, residency QI projects, or development of protocols, guidelines or education materials.

As our population ages, we will need a workforce that is well equipped to provide patient centered care for older adults. In 2019, 54.1 million US adults were 65 or older, representing 16% of the population—or more than one in every seven Americans. By 2040, the number of older adults is expected to reach 80.8 million. By 2060, it will reach 94.7 million, and older adults will make up nearly 25% of the US population. The older adults population in Indiana is estimated to be 1,114,688. Older adults account for 50 to 60% of the hospitalized adult population. We need a workforce that is experts in providing geriatric friendly care.

Our Geriatrics Track is designed for residents interested in the care of the older adult patients as a family medicine physician or planning to pursue a geriatrics fellowship. This track is an enhancement to the geriatrics curriculum of our residency program and includes an approach to the care of older adults based in the four Ms of geriatrics, all completed in a longitudinal manner throughout the three years of residency:

• Mind
• Mobility
• Medications
• What Matters Most

Participants in this special track will be provided the opportunity to:

• Work directly with faculty and diverse management and healthcare leaders.
• Conduct research on a range of health care access and affordability issues inclusive but not limited to prevention efforts, access to care issues, health disparities among disadvantaged populations, etc.
• Survey state agencies with administrative responsibilities in the health care field -State Insurance Commission, Department of Health and Human Resources, Higher Education Policy Commission, etc.
• Attend agency and legislative committee meetings pertinent to health policy issues.
• Attend National Health Policy Conferences.
• Participate in seminars directed towards special topics in health policy.
  
  

The health policy track includes components such as:

• Health Economics
• Health Systems/Services Financing
• Physician Payment Systems
• Health Workforce (Human Resources Planning)
• Health Law and Regulation
• Ethical Issues in Health Care
• Quality Measurement and Outcomes Analysis of Health Care
• Medicine and the Deployment of Technology
• Political Process
• Health Policy Development (Legislative Process)
• Recent Trends in Indiana and National Health Policy
• Leadership in Health Care

The Residency program is excited to be among the nationwide family medicine residency programs who is a home institution for residents to access and complete the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum.

The Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum consists of both educational and practicum components. Its educational component includes 40 hours of interactive virtual didactic material along with 60 hours of application activities designed to be completed over a one- to three-year time period. The practicum component includes 400 lifestyle medicine-related patient encounters, 10 hours of (Intensive) therapeutic lifestyle change (ITLC or TLC) program experience and 10 hours of group facilitation experience.

Upon completion of the education and practicum components, residents qualify to sit for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) certification exam.

The Global Health Residency Track at IU School of Medicine is designed to foster appreciation of the health disparities that exist throughout the world. The program offers valuable mentor relationships between faculty and residents that inspire long-term commitments to global health issues. Program components include an international field experience that residents complete at an approved partnership site. Participants in the Global Health Residency Track are given special preference for scheduling their international experience. Residents accepted into the track should expect to use their two away electives for this experience.

Sports Medicine Track

Residents interested in pursuing sports medicine fellowship or those with a significant interest in sports medicine activities are encouraged to consider taking part in the sports medicine track, which provides special education opportunities over the course of the three-year residency. Residents who complete this track are competitive for sports medicine fellowship positions throughout the United States.