It is no secret amongst the educational and administrative elites that while we spend our careers developing curriculae and conference schedules, the most important element to medical education comes from the patients a resident sees. Having a diverse patient base is requisite for great medical training, and having a large volume of these patients consolidates the learning.

There is no greater diversity of people, nor of disease, than that found at Tulane. The VA Medical Center, Tulane Hospital, and the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans ensure this diversity. Here you will see not only diverse disease types, but also diversity of severity of disease. It is the mission of the Tulane Internal Medicine Residency Training Program is to re-invest a New Orleans patient population previously disenfranchised. The unfortunate consequence of a disenfranchised patient population is that they have never had the right of primary care. The advantage for the trainee is that he or she has the opportunity to see disease that has progressed in the absence of primary care. This allows us to better appreciate the potential consequences of early disease, and to heighten our aggression in treating this disease. It also furthers our resolve to ensure that each of our patients enjoys their right to have primary care.

But most importantly, the Tulane Resident sees a diversity of people independent of their disease. Requisite for becoming a great physician is a becoming a great person, and requisite for becoming a great person is understanding and appreciating diversity. There are few cities that have this type of diversity: New York City, San Francisco perhaps; New Orleans for sure.