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The Hospital, Interventional, and Surgical Care Course (HISC) is comprised of two separate 8-week Blocks: Medicine and Surgery.

Course Structure

The HISC course is comprised of two separate 8-week Blocks: Medicine and Surgery. The Medicine Block is comprised of two, 4-week rotations on inpatient adult medicine services (general and specialty services). The Surgery Block is comprised of one 4-week rotation on a general surgery service, two, 2-week rotations on a specialty surgery service. Throughout both Blocks, there will be many educational activities. There will be several combined HISC lectures but most of the educational activities will be separate for each Block. Students will take the Medicine Shelf test at the end of the Medicine Block and the Surgery Shelf test at the end of the Surgery Block.

Course Leadership

Luigi Pascarella, MD
Raquel Reyes, MD, MPA
Rana Alkhaldi, MD

Clinical Sites

Internal Medicine or Family Medicine: Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Raleigh/Wake
Surgery: Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Raleigh/Wake

Course Content

This course provides an evidence-based approach to the evaluation and management of adult patients who need care in the inpatient setting. The course will focus on comprehensive care for patients with multiple chronic conditions, needing both acute and long-term management. The course will help students integrate skills, knowledge, and attitudes related to care in both medical and surgical settings. It provides opportunities for students to follow previously-encountered patients through collaboration with consultants, radiologists, pathologists and other healthcare professionals who make up the robust network of care within a hospital system. Components include supervised clinical care with integration into hospital care teams, regular small group sessions, online modules, touching on thread topics (pathology, basic science, population health, professionalism and ethics), and surgical skills development.

Assessment and Grading Components

All Application Phase courses use the same grading standards and assessment components. More information.

Hopsital, Interventional, and Surgical Care Grade Breakdown and Block Components