Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a university-affiliated, community-based three-year program built around two high-volume tertiary EDs (Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital) generating over 160,000 combined annual visits, with roughly two-thirds of clinical time based in the ED and four months of dedicated PGY-1 critical care exposure. The program's distinguishing feature is its EMS/pre-hospital infrastructure: a resident-staffed physician response vehicle (WMed-1) dispatched directly through Kalamazoo County 911, a longitudinal (rather than block-month) EMS curriculum, an air medical program, and an EMS fellowship housed within the department. A mandatory scholarly project plus an extensive menu of "mini-fellowship" specialty tracks (EMS Operations, EMS Education, Disaster Medicine, Medical Education, Critical Care Fellowship Prep, Sports Medicine, Wilderness Medicine, Ultrasonography, Leadership) signals a program built to let residents self-direct toward a niche career interest while producing broadly competent generalist clinicians eligible for ABEM certification. Faculty scholarly output clusters in EMS operations, resuscitation, and medical education research rather than bench science, indicating a clinically grounded, applied-research culture rather than a bench/physician-scientist orientation.