Message From the Chair

Debra Romberger, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine

Our department enjoys a national reputation in clinical care, health care training, and innovative research.  We are an academic medical center on the move, and UNMC's vitality is reflected in its international renown, service to its state and region, and the construction of new buildings for research, medical education, and patient care. 

A vigorous internal medicine residency is one of the foundations of an outstanding academic internal medicine department.  Many years ago, we made an institutional commitment:  We resolved to provide an outstanding training experience for our residents, with an emphasis on education over service.

In the words of our Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold, MD, we are on a journey from excellence to eminence. We hope you will join us!

Our department contributes greatly to our institution’s reputation.  Several of our division chiefs are current or past presidents of their respective specialty societies.  We are known nationally or internationally for expertise in lymphoma, rheumatoid arthritis treatment, geriatric assessment, gene-environment interactions in lung disease, cystic fibrosis, transplant hepatology, diabetic vascular complications, and more. 

Our faculty includes educational leaders as well as leaders in defining, measuring, and assuring physician competency and patient quality and safety.

Our primary clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, is consistently rated by US News & World Report as the top hospital in Nebraska. Nebraska Medicine is noted to have “high performing programs” in cancer, gastroenterology, nephrology, pulmonology, cardiology and heart failure, and geriatrics, among others.

We welcome an opportunity to meet you and show off our program, our residents and Omaha. If you have never been to Omaha, I guarantee that you will like what you see!

To help you as you evaluate residency programs, I offer the 4 Ps of training programs:

• Plan: Does the program have a curricular plan to provide rigorous training in the fundamentals of internal medicine? Do they measure the results using instruments (in-service exams, board passing rates) recognized by others? We have a plan, and our house staff excel.
• Peers: Are the residents in the program smart, driven, dedicated to their patients and profession, and fun to work with? I think our residents are all of that - see for yourself on a visit.
• Professors: Are the faculty not just great doctors or researchers, but committed to teaching? Medical students consistently single out our department as #1 in the medical center for teaching excellence.
• Patients: Are the residents exposed to a wide variety of patients, populations, and clinical problems? Our house staff rotate through a broad mix of clinical venues, and take care of patients from all walks of life - veterans with bread-and-butter medical problems, international immigrants, medical pilgrims with exotic conditions, Midwestern rural farmers, and Omaha's urban underserved.