Internal Medicine Residency

LHMC is a 335-bed tertiary referral center in Burlington, MA, and one of two such centers in the Beth Israel Lahey Health System. We are a major teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine and have the highest medical student satisfaction for clinical rotations among the Tufts academic partners. Lahey regularly has one of the highest volume liver transplant services in New England and our residents care for many end-stage liver disease patients. Our GI service performs many advanced interventional endoscopy procedures, and there is a high volume cardiac interventional and EP service offering multiple structural interventions and advanced ablation procedures. In 2019-2020, Lahey received national recognition from 11 organizations including Leapfrog Safety Grade A for 6 consecutive reporting periods, CMS Hospital Compare 5 Star, Healthgrades Top 50 Hospitals, Becker’s Healthcare Top 100 Hospitals, IBM Watson Top 50 Cardiovascular Programs (11-time winner), and Women’s Choice Award 2020.

• To educate our residents in providing unsurpassed care for patients with routine as well as high-acuity, complex conditions whether as a generalist or subspecialist.
• To support the professional development, personal growth and specific goals of residents and medical students.
• To educate our residents in becoming well-rounded physicians, with a strong understanding of the fundamentals of internal medicine, evidence based practice, physical diagnosis, and quality improvement.
• To encourage the development of leadership skills that position the residents to become agents of change in the present and future.
• To ensure residents are well-prepared for outpatient and/or inpatient general internal medicine practice, or subspecialty fellowships.
• To insure our residents have regular opportunities throughout training to focus on their personal well-being, work-life balance and personal development.
• To work within our institution to educate ourselves and to drive innovations to insure that we create and maintain a community committed to equity, fairness and diversity so that all in our institution feel welcome, supported and respected.

• Support trainees as they learn how to deliver the highest quality and safest patient care using evidence-based medicine, quality improvement, patient safety tools, and a team-work approach.
• Outline and implement specific learning objectives of an educational curriculum that ensures the broad knowledge and clinical skills required of qualified physicians to provide excellent patient care, and to advance medicine through research and education.
• Promote a culture of mutual learning, respect, and education.
• Acknowledge diverse views that foster healthy discussions among residents, clinicians, colleagues, patients and families.
• Utilize transparent systems for timely, meaningful and constructive resident evaluation and feedback in professionalism, patient care, medical knowledge, practice based learning, communication and systems based practice that are aligned with Lahey’s mission statement of providing superior health care to our patients.
• Support, guide and educate residents to provide ethical and patient-centered care and fulfill professional obligations.
• Nurture residents to become lifelong learners.
• Support residents as they work to master the skill of self-care, and to avoid burnout over their career. In addition to Lahey-wide wellness initiatives, residents are given regular “What I Need” (WIN) days to provide them the time to do this important work.
• Recruit and retain exemplary residents and faculty.
• Maintain a balance of education, service and research, while adhering to Lahey’s internal GME Committee guidelines and maintaining ACGME accreditation.
• Promote scholarly activities and opportunities for research projects while providing mentoring and supervision by faculty. During the 2020-2021 academic year the Lahey GME community is creating a research curriculum and mentoring program for all trainees.
• Create a robust curriculum to support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
• Expand our evidence-based medicine curriculum.

At least twice a year residents receive written feedback on their road to mastery of the ACGME Internal Medicine Milestones and Competencies, along with any other pertinent feedback related to their professional growth and development. They also meet with one of the program directors to review this progress, as well as their career aspirations, scholarship goals, access to mentors, and anything else of concern. The summative feedback is based on written evaluations, direct observation, nursing input, patient feedback, and other faculty input to our Clinical Competence Committee (CCC). The CCC is charged by the ACGME to review resident performance, professional development, and accrual of clinical competence as assessed through the lens of the ACGME internal medicine “milestones.” Input from multiple sources provides robust information to residents, and allows us to tailor support in particular areas if needed. The committee consists of the program directors, chief residents, program coordinators and key clinical faculty from all of the medical subspecialties. There are no fellowship directors on the CCC. The goal is to make sure everyone is on a path to success and excellence while trying to identify areas in which we can optimally support residents.

We additionally ask that faculty and residents sit down at the end of each week’s assignment to discuss successes and opportunities identified that week. While the faculty member will document progress towards mastery of the Internal Medicine competencies in their written evaluations, the verbal feedback allows for more nuanced and personalized feedback, and can be particularly helpful for professional development, mentorship and coaching.

We also advocate that residents pro-actively seek out feedback. Our environment is supportive and constructive, and we aspire to be a place of learning where all of our trainees and faculty embrace working in a “culture of safety”, engaging in honest self-reflection, and incorporating constructive comments into our career-long growth.

Additional resources and activities to support residents in their professional development:

• Quarterly “Connect and Reflect” sessions for each class. These sessions are led by junior faculty members, and are intended to provide a safe place to discuss challenges and successes, with the goal of easing burnout and fostering resilience.
• Residents elect class representatives to facilitate sharing resident concerns and proposing changes, as needed.
• Chief residents and program directors are always available, including by cell phone, for any concerns or questions.
• Lahey-wide housestaff meet regularly, and have the opportunity to raise institution-wide concerns which can be brought forward to the hospital-wide GME Committee to be addressed.
• GME leadership, including our Designated Institutional Official and Chief Academic Officer, hold periodic GME “town halls”.
• Lahey-wide faculty ombudsmen are available to all house officers with concerns they are uncomfortable bringing to their chiefs residents and program leadership.

Residency Leadership

Robert Faust, MD
Program Director, 2010 to present
General Internal Medicine

Dr. Faust is a graduate of Albany Medical College. He completed his residency at University of Maryland Medical Center. While serving as a resident, he developed a particular interest in teaching and residency education. Upon completion of his residency, he was the recipient of the Outstanding Senior Resident Award as well as the Medicine Clerkship Award for excellence in teaching. He went on to serve as the Primary Care Chief Resident. In that post, he led weekly primary care morning reports, organized weekly primary care noon conferences, and actively mentored residents with a particular interest in primary care. In addition, he had a leadership role in the continuity clinic for the residents.

Following his completion of his Chief Resident year, he sought a position that would allow him to continue his course in Academic Internal Medicine and he joined Lahey Hospital and Medical Center (LHMC) in 2009. Since 2011, he has served as an Associate Program Director in the Internal Medicine Residency Program with a particular focus on the outpatient experience. Over the course of his time at LHMC, he has been repeatedly recognized by the residents for his outstanding teaching. He has been the recipient of the General Internal Medicine Teaching Attending of the Year award twice as well as the Overall Internal Medicine Teaching Attending of the Year award.

Sheri Keitz, MD
Chair, Department of Medicine
General Internal Medicine

Dr. Sheri Keitz is Chair of the Department of Medicine at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center responsible for 17 divisions as well as 12 residency and fellowship programs. The Department encompasses over 1,000 FTE and approximately 80 residents and fellows. Dr. Keitz has longstanding experience as a leader in the incorporation of evidence into daily clinical practice. She serves as an editor for JAMAevidence related to her work on JAMA’s series The Rational Clinical Examination, a compendium of over 100 peer reviewed meta-analyses summarizing the strength of evidence to support recommendations for common clinical diagnosis questions. She is an internationally recognized educator on evidence-based medicine. She co-leads Duke’s annual workshop, Teaching and Leading Evidence-Based Practice, a national workshop for educators and champions in evidence-based practice and co-Directs McMaster University’s Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop.

In addition to her expertise in implementing EBM, Dr. Keitz has been an advocate for equity and diversity in academic medicine throughout her career. She was the first Vice-Chair for Diversity in Duke’s Department of Medicine and founded Duke’s Program for Women in Internal Medicine and while at the University of Miami, she created the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement. The diversity work was supported by an NSF ADVANCE grant for promotion of women in science, math and engineering as well as a HRSA Health Careers Opportunities Program (HCOP) Grant which supports a series of minority pipeline programs. Dr. Keitz did her internal medicine training and fellowship in clinical epidemiology at Duke, has a PhD in Pharmacology and has research experience in basic science, health services research, and education innovation. She is a celebrated educator: the inaugural winner of Duke University’s Master Clinician-Teacher Award in 2004 and the 2001 winner of the Eugene Stead Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2006 she was elected to Duke’s Engel Society for dedication to medical education. In 2010 at the University of Miami, Dr. Keitz was awarded the “Montblanc” teaching award, which is given each year by the Housestaff program to the faculty member felt to be the best educator, and who consistently demonstrates excellence in medicine and medical education.

Nicole L. Grossman, MD
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Nicole Grossman grew up in Massachusetts and completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania. She returned to the Boston area for her medical education, graduating from Tufts University's School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center's internal medicine program, and Brigham and Women's Hospital pulmonary and critical care clinical/research fellowship (where she spent 2.5 years as a research fellow in asthma). She currently serves as the Co-Director of the Lahey Asthma Center, an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency, and Medical Director of Lahey's Pulmonary Function Testing Lab.  In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, skiing, and running.

Allison S. Kanakis, MD
Associate Program Director
General Internal Medicine

Dr. Allison Kanakis grew up in New Hampshire. She graduated from New York Medical College and completed her internal medicine residency at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She spends most of her clinical time as a primary care physician, and she also works on the inpatient teaching service. As an Associate Program Director, she is responsible for managing the outpatient continuity clinic experience and for coordinating and teaching ambulatory didactics. Outside of medicine she enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters.

David Brabeck, MD
Associate Program Director
Hospital Medicine

Dr. David Brabeck completed medical school at the State University of New York-Downstate and is an alumni of the Lahey IM training program. He has been an Associate Program Director at Lahey since 2011. He splits time between the Division of Hospital Medicine, working as a hospitalist as well as the Division on General Internal Medicine where he conducts clinics in the Preoperative Center. Dr Brabeck has a particular interest in perioperative medicine, establishing and leading the Orthopedic/Hospital Medicine co-mangement service. He is also the director of the medical simulation branch of Lahey’s Simulation Center.

When asked to describe the culture at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, our internal medicine residents universally say that it is one of camaraderie and support. As a smaller program, we have the opportunity to develop deep working relationships – not only with one another, but other physicians and allied healthcare professionals in the hospital. Residents are able to stand out and thrive professionally and personally.

With the addition of Sheri A. Keitz, MD, PhD, as Department of Medicine Chair in 2019, the program’s Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) curriculum will be maximized. Dr. Keitz is a pioneer in the EBM field and co-directs two national/international EBM workshops. Under Dr. Keitz’ leadership, Lahey residents are expanding their skills to critically appraise the literature in both interventional and diagnostic studies and to more seamlessly incorporate evidence into clinical decision-making. This is particularly powerful when paired with residents’ deep shoulder-to-shoulder clinical training alongside attendings.

We understand that Interns may have variable levels of experience when starting in their new role. To make the transition as seamless as possible, we offer a rigorous orientation program prior to the start of the year, where Interns engage in simulation and shadowing sessions that acclimate them to clinical duties. Once they begin working, we maintain 1:1 supervision for the first three months, to ensure that interns receive appropriate support.

The Internal medicine program operates on a 4+1 schedule, and it has been met with great satisfaction. This model separates inpatient clinical duties from every 5th week in our general internal medicine (GIM) outpatient primary care practice. GIM outpatient care allows residents to foster longitudinal relationships with patients.

Because this week functions as an opportunity for reflection, recuperation and includes dedicated time for personal care, preliminary year interns have a schedule which follows a similar cadence, again providing an elective week every 5th or 6th.

Lahey Hospital & Medical Center’s reputation for excellence comes from our innovations in care, our exceptional patient outcomes, our research and more.

We are committed to maintaining our high standards and giving our patients the best care possible. A number of organizations track our progress and help us continuously raise the bar. In 2019-2020, Lahey received national recognition from 11 organizations including Leapfrog Safety Grade A for 6 consecutive reporting periods, CMS Hospital Compare 5 Star, Healthgrades Top 50 Hospitals, Becker’s Healthcare Top 100 Hospitals, IBM Watson Top 50 Cardiovascular Programs (11-time winner), and Women’s Choice Award 2020.

QI training is a core component of our teaching. Residents complete quality and safety education, activities and projects during their ambulatory block, under the direction of a dedicated QI Associate Program Director. For residents who want further experience in QI, there is an opportunity to join Lahey’s Housestaff Quality Council (led by the hospital’s Chief Quality Officer) and engage in institutional level projects.

Lahey Hospital makes use of the EPIC EMR, streamlining access to patient information, and minimizing time spent on administrative duties.

Residency can be a challenging time, both professionally and personally. At Lahey, we take in pride in fostering an environment that allows our residents to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Our program directors and chiefs routinely audit the program during regularly scheduled business meetings with the residents to assess how they are doing, and whether any system changes need to be made to daily operations. Resident satisfaction is paramount – recent changes include reducing patient caps, and minimizing 24h call in the units to one day in 2 weeks. On an institutional level, Lahey GME conducts regular Housestaff town hall meetings and lectures, where wellness and burnout are addressed.

Our schedule is created in a thoughtful manner, accommodating most vacation and golden weekend requests, as well as ensuring that each resident gets at least one major holiday off during the year. PGY3 residents are given a more flexible schedule during fellowship interview season, to reduce the need for coverage. We also incorporate WIN (What I Need) days on every Monday of our longitudinal clinic week (and elective weeks for preliminary interns), to allow residents time for personal appointments, errands, etc.

We have a “sick call” system that all residents participate in.

When not working, our residents enjoy socializing together. Group activities include a resident soccer team, and scheduled game nights. Program organized events have included a “Friendsgiving” potluck dinner, “Movember” to raise awareness about men’s health, Boda Borg night, and a wellness activity at the Museum of Fine Arts.