Welcome to the Med-Peds site for the Medical College of Wisconsin. I appreciate your interest in our program, and hope you find our site informative and helpful. I came to med-peds via a rather unusual route: after working with several primary care physicians in places as diverse as rural Iowa and inner-city Chicago, I knew I wanted to take care of families. The ability to impact groups as well as individuals, in a way that mattered most to them, is what drove me, and I assumed that meant a traditional 3-year residency. I discovered med-peds just in the nick of time. I realized I didn't have to give up the intellectual challenge of internal medicine to get the benefit of caring for children and calling it work. I didn't have to give up the rush of the ICU (or NICU, or PICU, or CICU) to be able to take care of families in the clinic. I could be in the delivery room with newborns and in the homes of hospice patients. I found my home. But something interesting also happened. I realized that the medical director of one of the regional managed care companies was med-peds trained. When I interviewed, regardless of program, almost all local med-peds physicians held academic appointments or were affiliated with the training program. When I asked about fellowship opportunities, everyone I talked to was intrigued by the opportunity to have a fellow who had both residency skill sets. I went into med-peds anticipating being an excellent doctor for families, but learned that by completing a med-peds residency, I was well prepared for leadership roles in any number of careers within and outside of direct patient care. As the president-elect for the Medicine-Pediatrics Program Director's Association and secretary-treasurer for Wisconsin Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics, I can trace the skills I use every day right back to the training and mentorship I received at MCW. It is that diversity of experience that our med-peds program strives to deliver for our residents. As a small (16 residents) program in the setting of large academic teaching centers, we are able to draw on the resources of both departments to achieve the depth of medicine and pediatrics as well as the breadth of possibilities each resident can explore. By providing the framework to achieve success in research, teaching, and community service, our residents are prepared to enter a career in clinical medicine, any categorical or combined fellowship, academics, or administration. That's a lot to do while trying to complete an already challenging residency. We understand that happy people make the best doctors, and that requires balance and flexibility. We are proud of our efforts to meet and exceed the needs of our residents, whether that means ACGME guidelines for resident duty hours, establishing external learning opportunities for residents, or providing real-time mentorship for research or community activities. This investment in residents and reinforcement of their passions has resulted in tremendous successes: Heather Toth, our 05-06 chief resident, is the past president of the National Med-Peds Residency Association; Krista Wiger, our 04-05 chief resident, has completed rotations in Katmandu, Nepal and Quito, Ecuador to learn about climate-based medicine and the economics of healthcare delivery in other nations; Shawn Bartel, incoming chief 07-08, served in Iraq and held increasingly demanding leadership positions. Within the last year, we've been blessed with 5 new babies in our med-peds family. All within the context of superb performance on clinical rotations. These are the sorts of accomplishments of which we are most proud. I want to wish you the best of luck in following your personal and professional passions, and hope that MCW can play a part in your travels. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or if I can be of assistance to you. LuAnn Moraski, DO Assistant Professor and Program Director Med/Peds Residency Program lmoraski@mail.mcw.edu