Wilford Hall doctors place third in nation

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- The internal medicine residents at Wilford Hall Medical Center here know their stuff.

The National Board of Medical Examiners recently notified officials at the Air Force's medical flagship that their residents placed third out of 398 programs nationwide on their Medical Resident in Training examinations.

That result places them in the top 1 percent in the nation.

Wilford Hall's internal medicine residency program is one of four in the Air Force. Other programs are conducted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Keesler AFB, Miss.; and Travis AFB, Calif. Wilford Hall's program is the largest with 47 residents enrolled this year -- about twice as many as the other programs.

"Each year, our faculty administers the MRIT examinations, which are practice tests for medical boards and self-assessment tools for residents to see what their strengths and areas of improvement are," said Col. (Dr.) Rick Downs, internal medical program director at Wilford Hall. "It's quite a credit to our teaching staff that we scored in the top 1 percent when you realize we're compared to medical programs such as Harvard."

There are about 60 faculty members on Wilford Hall's internal medicine residency team, and each resident spends three years in the program.

"The examination is a predictor of the residents' future success on their internal medicine boards," Downs said. "The results confirm our residents have extensive book knowledge of internal medicine when compared to the other 398 programs."

The Wilford Hall staff provides training in 45 specialties. The center's emergency medicine, ophthalmology and orthopedic residency programs scored in the top 5 percent nationwide during recent examinations. (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command News Service)