Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Program

Program Identity & Fit

VCU's Med-Peds program is a 48-month academic, university-affiliated combined training pathway anchored at a tertiary/quaternary academic medical center in urban Richmond, with a level 1 pediatric trauma center and a research-intensive parent institution. The program's defining structural feature is its resident-designed "Tandem Block Schedule," alternating two-week inpatient and ambulatory/elective blocks to preserve team continuity, deepen ambulatory exposure, and protect resident well-being, layered onto a competency-based "learner-manager-teacher/leader" advancement model. Scholarship is built into the longitudinal curriculum (case reports, QI projects, an optional intensive research summer series) and is expected of all residents, though defined broadly enough to include QI and clinical guideline work rather than requiring bench science. Career outcomes are split fairly evenly between hospital medicine (45%), fellowship (40%), and primary care (15%), reflecting a program that trains broadly employable internist-pediatricians rather than funneling toward a single track.