Gutonc's answer regarding PPMC is incorrect. First, all the community programs in Portland are academic. All Portland IM resident based community programs are tertiary hospitals. While many hospitals outside of Portland transfer complicated patients to Portland hospitals, the resident based community hospitals in Portland do not transfer patients to OHSU (except, occassionally for things like liver transplant if at PPMC). All other internal medicine related medical needs, regardless of severity, are handled at places like PPMC, PSV, Legacy. Truthfully, every person has different ideas what 'academic' means, but PPMC and PSV have research occurring at their centers (
http://oregon.providence.org/patien...tland-medical-center/Pages/researchindex.aspx), teach evidence based medicine, and expect the same quality work from their residents and educators as a university program. Residents at both programs participate in quality improvement projects, clinical research, present posters at local and national meetings, etc. If you are looking to do
bench research as a resident, though, it's less common at community programs.
Providence has ~1/3 residents going into primary care, 1/3 to hospitalist and 1/3 into fellowships, so your interest in subspecializing makes no difference in whether you're invited to interview.
Really, what it comes down to is that the number applicants applying to Providence continues to grow every year and only a certain number of applicants can be interviewed.
As a general statement, if a person has a specific interest in a program/location, but doesn't get an interview, it's not unreasonable to call and communicate your specific interest and ask if there's anything that can be done. While you may get a vague answer or a "nothing I can do about it" reply, occassionally, the program director (or whomever) is willing to re-review applications.
