Chris Vercammen, MD
I chose UCPC because of its emphasis on training general internists. We need strong, independent, and hard-working general internists more than ever given the changes in health care. Internists should be able to care for patients in the home, in the clinic setting, and in the hospital, and UCPC provided a strong foundation in all three settings. The geriatrics and palliative care curriculum in particular is invaluable as more care is delivered outside of the acute care setting and in post-acute care settings. The flexibility around scholarly activities is an important feature of UCPC, the faculty recognize that not everyone will remain in academic medicine, and projects can be tailored to suit career goals outside of publishing in an academic journal, but of course this is an option for those with career goals in academic medicine. Lastly, I chose UCPC because of my experience with various residents while I was a medical student at UCSF. The UCPC group seemed tight knit and were some of the strongest clinicians, in addition to being wonderful teachers and caring doctors.