It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Brown Internal Medicine website. I hope that you will find it to be user-friendly and that you can get many of your questions answered while visiting. We are very proud of our Internal medicine training program here at Brown/Lifespan and are eager to engage those of you who are interested in applying. It is a time of great change in Internal Medicine as programs throughout the country are accommodating to the many changes in our practices both in the hospital and in the ambulatory setting. We are proud of how we have adjusted and are eager to be at the forefront of establishing new ways of caring for patients into the future.
It is an exciting time here at Brown/Lifespan due to our committed and thoughtful leadership and new affiliation agreement between Brown University and Lifespan. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Dr. Mukesh Jain, M.D. as our Dean. Mukesh is a brilliant researcher and is expanding our research infrastructure and the breadth of biomedical research conducted at Brown. The Lifespan Health system also has a new CEO, John Fernandez, who comes to Providence with a wealth of experience in the Mass General Brigham Health system. He has forged a highly productive partnership with Mukesh Jain and the Brown University administration, culminating in the recently announced affiliation agreement that will, among other things, rename the system Brown University Health. The new agreement is thoughtfully designed to enhance patient care, research, and medical education. Look for our new logo later this year.
Perhaps more directly relevant to those of you interested in training here, Rachel Simmons is our residency program director, and she is joined by a team of 8 dedicated associate program directors. Rachel has continued our ethos of individual support and mentorship and has improved our rotation schedule and increased ambulatory education opportunities for residents. Rachel and her colleagues are constantly looking for ways to improve and expand our training opportunities in ways large and small. Importantly, she has just announced our plans to move to an X + Y schedule for our residency starting in July 2026. The details are being worked out, but I am confident we will develop a plan that will improve resident training and well-being.
I hope from looking at our website that you get a sense for the culture of our program, which in my estimation is its greatest strength. From my observations in morning report, Rice rounds, and as an attending on the wards, I am continually impressed by the sense of community demonstrated by our residents, community with each other, with the faculty and staff, with our patients and with the broader community at large. It is this sense of community and mutual support that is the hallmark of our program and, in my opinion, the component that is most critical to retain.
So take a look around and please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
Louis B. Rice, MD
Chairman, Department of Medicine