University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a university-affiliated program built around a single, high-acuity training site: Erlanger Baroness, the only Level I trauma center within 120 miles and the sole EM residency in the institution, giving residents undiluted access to the region's sickest, most undifferentiated patients from PGY-1 onward. The program pairs this volume-driven clinical environment with a structured, competency-based curriculum, protected weekly conference, and a formal research curriculum (study design, biostatistics, journal club, an annual departmental Research Day) supported by university biostatistical consultation, indicating research is built into training rather than incidental. Distinctive features include a dedicated PGY-2 research block, combined adult/pediatric EM shifts in the final two years, in-house Advanced EM Ultrasonography and ACGME EMS fellowships, a hyperbaric/wound care center, and EMS medical direction across a 14-county region, reflecting a department that values procedural range and pathways into EM subspecialization. As the first EM residency in the UT system and the referral center for a four-state, 50,000-square-mile catchment, the program appears to value residents comfortable with high-acuity autonomy and regional systems-level responsibility (EMS, disaster/pre-hospital medicine) alongside academic productivity.