Reorganizing a Medicine Residency Program in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly severe in New York City, resulting in a rapid influx of patients into New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The challenges precipitated by this pandemic have required urgent changes to existing models of care. Internal medicine residents are at the forefront of caring for patients with COVID-19, including the critically ill. This article describes the exigent restructuring of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Internal Medicine Residency Program. Patient care and educational models were fundamentally reconceptualized, which required a transition away from traditional hierarchical team structures and a significant expansion in the program's capacity and flexibility to care for large numbers of patients with disproportionately high levels of critical illness. These changes were made while the residency program maintained the priorities of patient care and safety, resident safety and well-being, open communication, and education. The process of adapting the residency program to the demands of the pandemic was iterative given the unprecedented nature of this crisis. The goal of this article is to share the experiences and lessons learned from this crisis, communicate the solutions that were designed, and inform others who may be facing the prospect of creating similar disaster response measures.

Osseous sarcoidosis of the hand: pathologic analysis and review of the literature.

A destructive granulomatous process involving the right fifth metacarpal and the soft tissues of the right thumb and nose of an African-American woman without pulmonary disease is described. The initial biopsy examination of the metacarpal showed caseating and noncaseating granulomata. After a fifth-ray amputation the disease progressed, leading to the referral of the patient to our institution. A biopsy examination of this recurrence showed a predominance of solid noncaseating granulomata. The diagnosis of sarcoidosis was made on the basis of the morphology of the granulomata and by exclusion of infectious and neoplastic causes. Steroid therapy has resulted in cessation of clinical and radiographic disease progression at a 3-year clinical follow-up evaluation.