Chairman's Welcome Letter

Myron L. Weisfeldt, M.D. William Osler Professor & Chairman

Welcome to the website of the Department of Medicine of Johns Hopkins Medicine.  Whether you are a current trainee, a potential housestaff member or fellow, a present or future patient, or a colleague in medicine or science, we hope that you will find the information here you are seeking.  Navigating this site will introduce you to whatever aspects of this great Department interests you. 

The Department of Medicine is committed to fulfilling our stated mission:

The overarching mission of the Department of Medicine is to lead the world of medicine in discovery, healing, education, service delivery and in shaping public policy. 

The Department of Medicine stands firmly on the belief that we can, within the same Department, achieve excellence in research, clinical care and teaching. 

The Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins continues to receive more National Institutes of Health grant support for research than any other Department of Medicine in the United States.  All 13 Divisions within the Department of Medicine boast outstanding research programs.  In the last two years, the total outside research dollars coming into the Department of Medicine has increased to over 200 million per year.  Most exciting is the fact that the largest part of this in funding is for Center Grants, which are funded at 50 million dollars per year.  These grants have the Center’s Principal Investigator within the Department of Medicine.  They are focused are common human diseases or on common core disciplines such as proteomics and epigenetics.  They investigate, among others, sudden cardiac death, ventilator-lung associated injury, endothelial cell biology, reperfusion injury following ischemia, frailty, HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis.

In our mission of teaching and education, the Department of Medicine is an institutional leader, with 30% of all full time faculty within the School of Medicine.  The Department also leads Johns Hopkins in direct contact hours with medical students during all four years of medical school with 60% of the total direct contact hours.  There is a brand new Armstrong Medical Education Building and many of our faculty but, in particular, Dr. Patricia Thomas and Dr. Charles Wiener, have been instrumental in curricular reform.  The new curriculum, Genes to Society, is a result of a five-year curriculum development program process that has included over 100 faculty, administrative staff and students.  The curriculum development process addressed a variety of forces advocating for change in the way we prepare physicians to practice medicine in the 21^st century.  This new curriculum ranges from the impact of the Human Genome Project, ability to modulate disease and prevention and coupled with social and behavioral sciences as well as public health and policy.  An emphasis will be placed on improved assessment and evaluation.  Thus, our faculty is committed to teaching, which we believe is a tremendous benefit to our medical students whose course work is delivered by physicians and scientists actively engaged in medicine including the care of patients. 

The Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins has two medical housestaff programs on our two primary campuses in Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.  Bayview is home to a strong academic program with both a categorical track (in which most trainees go on to subspecialty fellowship training) and the national renowned primary care track.  A vibrant research and teaching campus, Bayview attracts a diverse patient population and is the site of the nation’s leading program in geriatrics.  At the Hopkins Hospital campus, the Osler Medical Housestaff Program, led by Dr. Sanjay Desai, focuses on both academic general medicine and subspecialty training.  It is also renowned for successfully training individuals committed to academic careers.  This commitment to academic training brings both extra luster and extra responsibility.  The Osler Medical Handbook (available online at amazon.com or at a local bookstore) is an example of the quality of clinical commitment and the academic excellence of our housestaff.  Profits from the book and philanthropy from our many Osler alumni support the fund for scholarship that promotes opportunities for our housestaff. 

The Department of Medicine maintains a full range of subspecialty fellowship training programs in clinical disciplines as well as an eminence array of specialized fellowships devoted to the advancement of knowledge and/or technical skills in diverse and highly specialized areas of medicine, as well as advanced training in biomedical research, clinical research and outcomes research.  In these and other activities of the Department, there is an emphasis on recruiting and fostering the careers of minority and or disadvantaged physicians and scientists. 

The Department of Medicine has an outstanding record of effective clinical care.  Approximately one-third of all discharges from the Johns Hopkins Hospital and from the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center are from the Department of Medicine.  The Department has gone beyond reduction of length of stay across the hospital with no increase in readmission or mortality rates.  More recent major clinical accomplishments include marked improvements in hand hygiene, deep vein thrombosis, prophylaxis screening, a rapid response team, the Medical Intensive Care Unit Rehabilitation Pilot Project and start up of a combined transplant unit.  Working closely with our nursing colleagues, headed by Karen Davis, has seen a retention in recruitment through staff engagement, clinical excellence and efficiency by demonstrating the use of a nurse expeditor role and improved orientation and patient safety and satisfaction.  Both campuses have a Hospitalist Program.  The Bayview campus has the largest program.  It provides 24/7 triage to the Department of Medicine and has been successful in reducing red alert, increasing throughput and capacity through the emergency room, increasing hospital volumes and allowing the housestaff to focus on learning rather than hospital efficiencies.  Both Hospitalists Programs are effective in training academic hospitalists. 

Not only is the Department concerned about improved patient safety and patient care, but we are equally dedicated to maintaining the quality of education and standard duty hours for our housestaff.  All training programs in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins are fully compliant and certified by the Internal Medicine Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). 

Despite tremendous success in obtaining NIH grant funding, during these difficult financial times one must also consider nontraditional sources of funds.  We are pleased to report that endowment to the Department has increased to 16 million, and other nontraditional sources include specialized testing services for other hospitals and health care programs abroad.  Thus, in order to maintain our excellent programs, we are also broadening our horizons of funding. 

Our Department continues to produce national leaders.  Of note, three outstanding Hopkins faculty have been chosen to become national leaders.  Linda P. Fried, M.D., M.P.H. is now the Dean and DeLamar Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.  Neil R. Powe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. is the Chief of Medical Services at the San Francisco General Hospital and the Constance B. Wofsy Distinguished Professor and Vice-Chair of Medicine, University of California San Francisco. Most recently, Charles J. Lowenstein, M.D. has been appointed to lead the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and will also serve as the Director of the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute.  It is bittersweet to see our success, but that success is populating prestigious institutions throughout the country.  We wish these faculty all the best as they assume their new administrative opportunities.

Johns Hopkins has stood for excellence in patient care, research and teaching for over a century.  I am proud of the remarkably talented and collegial members of this great Department of Medicine and welcome you to get to know us.

Sincerely,

Myron L. Weisfeldt, M.D.

William Osler Professor of Medicine

Chair, Department of Medicine