At UHS, medical education is more than a training requirement. It is part of a long-standing commitment to preparing future physicians to care for patients in the region and beyond.
Through its residency and fellowship programs, UHS provides hands-on education for physicians who are building expertise in specialties including family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, cardiology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, sports medicine, rheumatology, pharmacy and podiatry. Approximately 130 residents and fellows are training across UHS hospitals at any given time.
“The goal is to provide a well-rounded education in each specialty,” said Jocelyn Young, DO, MSc(Ed), MSc, FAAFP, designated institutional officer and director of medical education, UHS. She added that UHS hopes graduates will remain in the community or serve elsewhere as highly trained physicians.
Medical education
UHS has a long history of graduate medical education. Its internal medicine and preliminary programs date back to 1957, followed by family medicine in 1971, podiatry in 1994 and newer programs, including psychiatry in 2023 and rheumatology in 2024.
Purushothaman Muthukanagaraj, MD, chairman and medical director of psychiatry, UHS, said the psychiatry residency was created in response to a significant shortage of psychiatrists in Broome County and surrounding communities.
“Starting a residency program definitely helped address the shortage,” Dr. Muthukanagaraj said.
Since the program began, the Psychiatry department has grown from five psychiatrists to 13, allowing UHS to expand outpatient services and strengthen emergency and consult services.
UHS’ relationship with the SUNY Upstate Binghamton Clinical Campus, which began in 1976, further strengthens the academic environment with medical students, residents and fellows learning alongside one another in a collaborative clinical setting.
Residents and fellows benefit from the range of care available within UHS. Dr. Young said trainees have access to a wide variety of subspecialists and do not typically have to travel to other hospitals for rotations. Training opportunities include inpatient pediatrics, obstetrics, Level II trauma care and a cardiac catheterization lab.
The experience is hands-on from the beginning. Residents are not simply observing care—they are physicians actively providing patient care under the supervision and guidance of attending physicians.
That immersive approach also extends to UHS’ pharmacy residency program. The one-year program is accredited through the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and includes rotations in internal medicine, critical care, ambulatory care, emergency medicine, cardiology, behavioral health and care transitions.
“When they’re on those various rotations every six weeks, they’re embedded in the medical care team,” said Amber Jerauld, PharmD, BCACP, pharmacy residency program director, UHS Pharmacy. “They round with physicians and work closely with nurses to resolve medication-related problems.”
Dr. Young noted that family medicine residents are assigned “a panel of their very own patients.” They see those patients in the office, follow up on lab results and continue caring for them if they are admitted to the hospital.
“From day one, residents are right in the middle of clinical care,” Dr. Young said.
New rural residency program
UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital (CMH) was accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 2023 to become a sponsoring institution for graduate medical education. In 2024, UHS CMH received ACGME accreditation for a new Rural Family Medicine Residency Program. The inaugural class begins in July 2026, with two residents per year and six trainees total once the program is fully established.
Dr. Young said this new program responds to a growing need in rural communities.
“It has been increasingly challenging to recruit new family physicians across upstate New York, especially in rural areas,” Dr. Young said.
The new program will be based at UHS CMH. Dr. Young said UHS wants to recruit physicians who have both interest and experience in rural care, where community needs can differ from those in larger hospital systems.
“In rural medicine, there is often less access to subspecialists,” she said. Primary care physicians in those settings need “a wider breadth of knowledge” and the ability to perform various in-office procedures.
The rural setting also affects when and how patients seek care. Dr. Young noted that in more agricultural communities, patients might delay seeking care and may be quite ill by the time they arrive.
Residents at UHS CMH will train in full-spectrum family medicine. Their experience will include outpatient care, inpatient care, emergency care, labor and delivery, and care for families across generations.
The hope is that the program will not only train physicians, but also help build the local workforce. Over the past five years, between 40% and 50% of UHS graduates have remained with the UHS System to practice or pursue fellowship training.
Dr. Young said UHS engages with residents from the very beginning about the opportunity to build a career with UHS, while still supporting their individual career goals.
Looking ahead, she hopes UHS’ residency and fellowship programs will continue to improve patient outcomes in the short term and help meet the region’s physician needs in the long term.
“I hope that all of these programs together have an immediate impact on patient outcomes, improving the quality and delivery of patient care,” Dr. Young said.
To learn more about our residency and fellowship programs at UHS, please visit: https://www.nyuhs.org/why-choose-us/academic-affairs-medical-education.