Mark V. Williams, MD, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine
markwill@nmh.org

This is an exciting time to be involved in Hospital Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.  Hospital medicine is the fastest growing medical specialty in the history of American medicine, and our Division is well-equipped to lead its development both in Chicago and nationally.  As experts in hospital-based patient care, hospitalists provide general medical care to inpatients and coordinate the management of their complex medical issues.  Our Division of Hospital Medicine, with more than 40 hospitalists, represents one of the largest academic hospitalist programs in the nation.  Our diverse, energetic faculty includes nationally recognized leaders in medical education, quality improvement, and clinical care research.  Together, we seek to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and effective communication to improve the quality of patient care.  This teamwork-based, patient-centered approach permeates the three pillars (clinical care, education, and research) of our Division. 

As physicians whose “office” is the hospital, our hospitalists actively engage in all aspects of care delivery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s state of the art facilities.  While providing timely hospital coverage, we closely collaborate with primary care physicians to ensure optimal coordination and quality of patient care.  Our Division continues to evolve through involvement and leadership in quality improvement, evidence-based medicine, systems management, medical informatics, and patient safety initiatives.  My hospitalist colleagues and I look forward to partnering with nurses, pharmacists, primary care providers and other specialists to develop and optimize patient-centered models of care.

Our Division is the editorial home of both the Journal of Hospital Medicine and the new reference text Comprehensive Hospital Medicine, affording residents the opportunity to collaborate with leading scholars who are defining and disseminating evidence-based guidelines for the safe, effective care of hospitalized patients.  Our educational program also benefits from the robust academic infrastructure of the Department of Medicine, the largest department in Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.  Fully integrated into the Department of Medicine residency program, our Hospitalist Track provides superb educa­tion in a broad range of clinical areas as well as training vital to careers in hospital medicine.  Our curriculum emphasizes techniques and processes that optimize individual and team learning, including innovative approaches such as the simulation training developed by Dr. Jeff Barsuk, our division’s leader in resident education, and Dr. Diane Wayne, Director of the Department of Medicine’s Residency Program.  Collaboration with Northwestern McGaw Simulation Network will allow broader application of this hands-on, mastery learning approach.

Given the Division’s status as a center for scholarship in hospital medicine, it is well situated to play an important role in the development of new ideas in the field.  The research work of our faculty centers on quality improvement, patient safety, medical informatics, peri-operative care, and medical education.  Several innovative clinical research projects are underway in association with Northwestern’s Institute for Healthcare Studies (IHS) and Center for Communication and Medicine (CCM).  Our Division and the IHS jointly offer a fully funded, two-year, full-time post-doc­toral fellowship beginning in June 2008 for individuals seeking a career in health services research focused on hospital medicine.   

The Division of Hospital Medicine brings together the significant academic and clinical resources of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital with a talented, dedicated group of hospitalists and staff.  We aim to establish the leading academic Division of Hospital Medicine for high quality patient-centered clinical care delivery, pioneering education programs, and innovative clinical research.  I encourage you to explore the remainder of this website and to contact us for more information.