Internal Medicine - Internal Medicine Oakland

We are an academic community program founded over 70 years ago—the first Kaiser Residency Program in the country! We work in a busy teaching hospital noted for clinical excellence, an extremely diverse patient population, and a supportive and friendly environment. You will be well prepared for fellowship training and for careers in hospital medicine, primary care, academic medicine, or public health. You will love living in the center of the vibrant Bay Area with easy access to San Francisco, Napa Wine Country, Berkeley, and only a few hours from Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.

• Fellowship Match success: Since 2015, 90% of Kaiser Oakland residents have matched into their 1st or 2^nd choice program for fellowships at competitive programs across the country.
• Fellowship programs: In conjunction with our partner Kaiser Northern California residencies, we sponsor fellowships in Pulmonary-Critical Care, HIV, GI, Oncology, Nephrology, Community Medicine, Patient Safety, and Addiction Medicine.
• ABIM Board Success: Since 2014, 97% of graduates have passed the ABIM exam on their first attempt (as compared to national averages of ~90%), and the Program Director edits the First Aid for the Internal Medicine Exam Board Review book!
• Scholarly achievements: Our 3-year programs in research and QI have led to numerous presentations and awards for Kaiser Oakland residents at local and national conferences. Check out our list of recent publications, presentations, and awards in Research and QI!
• Distinction in Medical Education KORE pathway
• Medical Student teaching: Over 60 medical students rotate with us annually, and Kaiser Oakland is the first site UCSF added when they expanded the Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum (LIC) model and required sub-internship rotations. Our program affiliations include:
  • UC San Francisco School of Medicine and the UCSF KLIC Program
  • UC Davis and the ACE-PC program
  • Drexel Medical School
  • California Northstate University Medical School
  • UC Berkeley School of Public Health
  • UCSF/UCB Joint Medical Program

Olivia Kizzee, Finalist ACP Vignette Competition

Oakland is the second most ethnically diverse city in the US. In 2015, Kaiser Permanente was rated by DiversityInc as one of the “Top 50 Companies for Diversity”, and our patient population reflects this wonderful socioeconomic and ethnic diversity.  Over 150 languages are spoken within our city limits. As of 2021, 21% of our patients are Black, 20% Asian Pacific Islander, 17% Latino, and 2.5% mixed or Native American.  Among our members who choose to self-identify gender, 12% identify as transgender. We have a very diverse case mix including Medicare/Medicaid patients and patients with Covered California (our ACA insurance), as well as care of the uninsured. It is our goal to promote equity in health care for all individuals and to eliminate disparities in health outcomes. We are proud of the 2014 New England Journal of Medicine publication authored by investigators from Harvard and Michigan which demonstrated that Kaiser Northern California—but no other health plan– was able to eliminate disparities between blacks and whites in control of blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes by 2011. [Ayanian JZ et al. NEJM 2014; 371: 2288-2297.] Hear more from our program residents and faculty about a recent Black History Month celebration in this video.  Four minutes into this 11-minute video, residents Raleigh Fatoki and Olivia Kizzee are featured, followed by Outpatient Teacher-of-the-Year Dr. Lloyd Stockey and Assistant Program Director Dr. Nailah Thompson.

In the Oakland IM Residency program, we are committed to stamping out racism and illuminating and eliminating the structural racism that exists in our communities. We firmly believe that diversity is excellence and we are committed to recruiting and training residents who share this mission. Read elsewhere on the website about the Medical Student Diversity Scholarships available for qualified sub-interns.

Community engagement is the reason we launched the IM Residency track in Health Equity & Disparities. Examples of community-based clinics and experiences all our residents can choose:

• Community clinics such as Lifelong Medical (an FQHC), La Clinical de la Raza, Asian Health Services, The Malta Clinic (for uninsured or underinsured patients), Oasis Clinic, Native American Health Center, and San Quentin (Care of the Incarcerated)
• Advocacy and community education at Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), an organization that assists our community’s most vulnerable
• Volunteer days at community fairs/projects supported by Kaiser
• Pipeline mentoring with local middle and high schools and through SNMA and LMSA
• Funded International medical rotations
• On-site Farmer’s Market (Kaiser Oakland was the first U.S. hospital to have an on-sit farmer’s market featuring food grown by local farmers)

We believe that the best physicians are the happiest and most balanced physicians. We achieve work-life balance for our residents through our comprehensive residency Wellness Program, led by a dedicated Assistant Program Director:

• Balanced schedules: Our schedule includes one weekend day off EACHWEEK on Ward Medicine rotations
• Twice per year residents may schedule a Wellness Day to attend to personal needs (dentist, doctor visits, optometry, etc.)
• Stipends earmarked specifically for local fitness center memberships, to the tune of $720 annually!
• Annual retreats for each class
• Resiliency small group sessions: facilitated debriefing on the challenges residents face (staying connected to family; handling grief and death; ways to prevent burnout, etc)
• Confidential wellness check-ins with mental health counselors, with access to multiple mental health professionals within and outside of the Kaiser network
• Regular Wellness activities ranging from potlucks to pancake breakfasts, Warriors and A’s outings, sock exchanges, hikes, bike rides, dog-walking, wine tastings, pick-up basketball, and happy hours
• Women in Medicine gatherings led by faculty and residents, ranging from career advice sessions to informal book clubs and wine tastings to formal research presentations through the American Medical Women’s Association
• Ask us about our Resident Wellness Passport and our Lifestyle Medicine curriculum!

As the world we live in becomes “smaller” – there are an increasing number of career opportunities in international health. Our Global Health program is led by Dr. Somalee Banerjee, MD, MPH, a former graduate of the KP Oakland IM Residency who has extensive experience in academic global health. In addition to her clinical duties as a Kaiser Oakland Hospitalist, Dr. Banerjee is the Senior Research Fellow at Neerman, a public health/health systems research firm in India. A formal global health curriculum based on global ethics and comparative health systems study will form the basis of a global health certificate for residents in the Global Health Path.

Stimulated by their experiences in residency, several residents have pursued academic Global Health careers, such as Dr. Zena Salim’s Global Health fellowship at UCSF and Dr. Esme Cullen’s Epidemiology research fellowship at Harvard.

There are numerous opportunities to tailor international experiences to your interests– our residents have rotated in places as varied as Vietnam, South Korea, Columbia, Taiwan, Cambodia, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Uganda, and China. You will have the opportunity to learn and teach fellow residents and faculty about various Global Health issues including, but not limited to, providing health care in low-resource settings, the different disease burdens outside of the developed world as well as how globalization affects health. Funding is available for international rotations.

Read about one resident’s journey here.

Kaiser Oakland faculty presented the first-of-its-kind curriculum in Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Internal Medicine trainees at the National Conference of the Program Directors of Internal Medicine meeting in 2011, and POCUS training continues to be a foundation of our program. Assistant Program Director Dr. Ingraham was a faculty lead at the National ACP Course on Point-of-Care U/S with the Society of Hospital Medicine and is the Kaiser Permanente Northern California lead Hospitalist for Point-of-Care Ultrasound teaching.

All ward teams have a handheld U/S, and residents can also access larger machines onwards, in the ED, and in ICU. In addition, our Primary Care APDs and ED faculty will teach residents to use U/S to perform evaluations of retinal, tympanic membranes, thyroid, knees, foot, hands, shoulder, spine, hips, etc.

Residents seeking additional proficiency can pursue the Advanced U/S elective with our dedicated POCUS faculty—a great way to enhance your experience and prepare you for a career as a Hospitalist, a procedure-based specialist, or Outpatient Medicine.

In addition to ultrasound, Kaiser Oakland residents will receive high-fidelity training using the Sim-Man 3G machine to practice running codes, rapid responses, sepsis, and stroke alerts, and critical event training.  During orientation and interspersed during residency, interns will use simulation mannequins to solidify their procedural skills for paracentesis, thoracentesis, lumbar puncture, and central venous catheter placements.

KP Oakland IM Anti-Racism Statement

Racism is embedded in the history of medicine, and its pervasive nature continues today. We see it manifest in high-profile violent hate crimes against George Floyd and countless others. We also acknowledge its subtlety in microaggressions and its systemic legacy in our society. While great strides have been made toward fighting racism and its detrimental effects, we acknowledge that we must continually and proactively address issues that impact racial disparities in health and social outcomes. Because racism is a strong contributing factor to racial disparities in health outcomes, it is imperative that we engage in the ongoing dialogue of racism as a public health crisis and consciously practice medicine that promotes equity, inclusion, and justice for our communities.

Here at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Internal Medicine Residency Program, we commit to being anti-racist in our interactions with our colleagues, our patients, and our communities. To be anti-racist is to actively counter the societal norm that institutionally oppresses our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) patients, colleagues, and communities. We pledge to identify and call out our conscious biases and to acknowledge that we are prone to unconscious biases that can impact how we think and act. We aim to provide culturally humble care to our patients and create a safe workspace for our colleagues – we are willing to listen, reflect, and learn. We strive to advocate for policies that promote equity and dismantle processes that perpetuate injustice.

Below are our initial efforts to reflect our commitment to anti-racism:

• Dedicated academic half-day sessions focusing on racial health disparities impacting health because we believe that educating ourselves on these topics is just as important as developing our clinical knowledge on medical management.
• Incorporation of racial health disparities into regular didactic sessions. Speakers for daily report/noon conference are encouraged to address relevant racial health disparities within their respective clinical teachings, as these topics should not be siloed to dedicated sessions only.
• Bias impact reporting tool. All residents in the program have access to an anonymous reporting tool easily accessed via a QR code displayed in the resident room. Residents are encouraged to report any encounters that they perceive as biased in any manner. All reports are regularly evaluated and investigated by a committee of diverse faculty, consisting of staff from different specialties to review and investigate cases, as well as escalate when appropriate.
• Recruitment process prioritizing diversity. An important way to combat racism is to increase representation where it matters most, which is why we prioritize the diversity and inclusion of residents and faculty in our program to reflect that of our patient population and encourage diversity of thought.

Ongoing change is needed, at individual and institutional levels in order to effectively reduce healthcare disparities that plague our nation. In the context of our residency program, this demands that we cultivate a culture of anti-racism and inclusion. To this end, this statement is a starting point to which we hold ourselves accountable to our patients, our colleagues, and our communities to provide an environment where race is not a detriment to the care that we provide.

The Bay Area really does have it all! And our flexible schedule allows plenty of time to explore:

• Oakland possesses a unique mix of vibrant urban lifestyles with quick access to nature.  Foodies will love the Michelin-star restaurants, explosion of craft breweries, quick access to Napa wineries and Tahoe skiing. Night life boasts a vibrant music and club scene, and outdoors enthusiasts in the residency regularly take advantage of over 100 miles of East Bay trails for hiking, biking, and ultra-running just a couple of miles from the medical center.
• And don’t forget about the professional and recreational sports teams—including 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors!!

Kaiser has long been a leader in the use of medical technology and our 100% fully integrated electronic medical record is the envy of programs nationwide! When COVID first struck and in-person visits to clinic were postponed, our residency program was prepared. Almost overnight we were able to flip the switch and conduct meaningful video visits with patients to maintain their health. Our patient-centered system allows for easy, efficient, comprehensive, and high-quality care. For example, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the death rate from heart disease among the Northern California Kaiser members is 30 percent lower than the rest of the Northern California population, adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and other common variables.

Residents at Kaiser Oakland will practice in new clinics and hospital buildings featuring the latest advances in technology, private rooms for patients, and individual iPhones for residents which are fully loaded with a HIPAA-protected EMR.  Come find out why President Obama sent a team to Kaiser Oakland to learn about the Kaiser model prior to designing The Affordable Care Act!

To promote our Medical Center’s mission to enhance diversity and to help to defray the costs of housing, airfare, and other expenses, Kaiser Oakland offers scholarships of up to $2,000 to senior medical students wishing to pursue fourth year rotations in internal medicine at our campus. Recipients are selected based on their record of promoting diversity and inclusion. More information can be found at the section on Medical Students Diversity Scholarships