Department of Medicine

The purpose of the Department of Medicine at the University of North Carolina is to align research and education with outstanding patient care, and to transform clinical medicine into patient-centered care, delivered with the highest standards of quality, compassion and cost-consciousness, and based on an infrastructure that nimbly adjusts to an ever-changing landscape.

Update on COVID-19 : University Updates UNC Health Updates

Featured News

Eosinophilic gastritis and duodenitis are inflammatory diseases characterized by high levels of eosinophils and mast cells (immune system cells) in the stomach and duodenum. These disorders are often under diagnosed and symptoms include chronic abdominal pain and cramping, nausea, bloating, loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea. The current standard of care includes corticosteroids, dietary elimination, …

Sam Cykert, MD, professor of medicine in the division of general medicine and epidemiology, led a data-driven intervention to prevent an estimated 6,000 heart attacks, strokes, and deaths due to cardiovascular disease at 219 North Carolina clinics. The results, published in Health Services Research, show that practices were able to reduce the percent of patients at …

eConsults are making access to high quality, specialty care easier, while also helping to increase care value. eConsults are a digitized version of ‘curbside consults’, launched in 2019 through the Value-Care Action Group which encourages redesigning care in ways that increase value. Since then, specialists in the UNC Department of Medicine have completed over 1,000 …

Attitudes and behaviors of medical providers have been identified as one of the many factors that can contribute to health disparities. Implicit bias describes thoughts and feelings that people unknowingly hold and express automatically, without conscious awareness. Project EMBRACE, the acronym for “Ending Medical Bias and Racism by Advocating for Change and Equity” was a …

Upcoming Events

Nov02

Structures of Inequality: A Focused Look at Systems of Racism

Monday 4:00 pm

Nov11

Virtual Nephrology Grand Rounds: “Why Do So Many African Americans Have Kidney Disease? Lessons Learned From Patient-Derived Cells About Pathomechanism of APOL1 Nephropathy.”

Wednesday 4:00 pm

Dec04

19th Annual North Carolina Cardiovascular Update

Friday 1:00 pm

Featured Physicians

Featured Physician

Dr. Keia Sanderson wrote an essay in the first grade describing how her pediatrician, an African American female, inspired her to achieve. “Very early in my life, she along with my parents made me feel like I could do anything,” said Sanderson, an associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology and hypertension. She also says her grandmother gave her the best advice about lifelong learning.

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Featured Resident

Dr. Michael Cunningham grew up in Raleigh, and studied biology at the College of Charleston. He was a research technician in the immunology department at Duke before attending medical school at the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Cunningham enjoys the outdoors with his dog Misha and cooking with his wife.

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Chair’s Corner Podcast

“A biosimilar is similarly effective and similarly safe, and one switch between the originator and biosimilar is shown to be safe and similarly effective.”

-Dr. Hans Herfarth

Biosimilars - with Dr. Hans Herfarth
“The most common question I get is, 'What’s going to happen to me and how long will it take to get better?' A related question is, 'Why did this happen to me?' I think that’s not an uncommon question for any autoimmune disease. We don’t have great answers.”

Dr. Deepa Kirk

Autoimmune Thyroid Disease - with Deepa Kirk, MD
“Initially, we ask people to strictly avoid red meat—beef, pork, lamb, this would include venison, bison, buffalo—anything essentially that has hooves and walks on four legs, we ask them to avoid.”

Dr. Scott Commins

Alpha-Gal Allergy - with Dr. Scott Commins
“I would say don’t just look in your circle. It’s easy to look at your group of friends and your family members, but…there are so many people who know you every day. You’d be surprised what they’re willing to do—to risk their bodies and injury to them. It leaves me with a feeling that I cannot even express with words.”

Kevin Howell, on finding a kidney donor

Kidney Transplant Patient Story – with Kevin Howell

Autoimmune Thyroid Disease – with Deepa Kirk, MD

Alpha-Gal Allergy – with Dr. Scott Commins

Kidney Transplant Patient Story – with Kevin Howell

Chair’s Corner Podcast

Department of Medicine

Featured News

Anti-Siglec-8 Antibody Trial Shows Promise for Treating Eosinophilic Gastritis and Duodenitis

Data-driven Intervention Reduces Cardiovascular Risk Across North Carolina

Value-Care Action Group’s eConsults Reach Milestone, Styner Explains How They Impact Patient Care

Internal Medicine Residency Program Holds Noon Conference Series EMBRACE: “Ending Medical Bias and Racism by Advocating for Change and Equity”

Upcoming Events

Structures of Inequality: A Focused Look at Systems of Racism

Virtual Nephrology Grand Rounds: “Why Do So Many African Americans Have Kidney Disease? Lessons Learned From Patient-Derived Cells About Pathomechanism of APOL1 Nephropathy.”

19th Annual North Carolina Cardiovascular Update

Featured Physicians

Featured Physician

Featured Resident

Chair’s Corner Podcast