The Director's Welcome

Welcome! We are excited for you to learn more about our Tidelands Health MUSC Family Medicine Residency Program, which has all the elements of  family medicine training delivered in the setting of a friendly beach community. Our program offers a high-quality, innovative residency that produces successful and highly skilled physician leaders. It offers the best of both worlds -- an unopposed residency at a community hospital with the academic resources of MUSC. Our program promotes wellness and resiliency while producing future medical leaders in a culture of collaboration and teamwork. It is the first and only residency program in the Tidelands Health system and is a source of great enthusiasm and pride for our patients, residents, faculty, staff, and community.  

We believe leadership skills are paramount for future physician practice. Therefore, our residency program has extensive leadership training experience. Through our curriculum, residents learn about the health care system, personnel management, strategic planning, management and leadership styles, problem solving, billing, coding, and physician contracts.

Another unique feature of our program is its focus on wellness and building individual resilience. Residents have quarterly outings sponsored by the residency program to participate in fun teambuilding activities such as kayaking, rope obstacle course, scavenger hunts, and dinners. To encourage residents to stay physically fit, each resident is provided with a gym membership. Throughout residency, you will be encouraged to make healthy lifestyle choices and be educated on the effects of lifestyle on health and well-being. These skills can help you cope with stress, achieve a healthy work-life balance, reduce burnout and increase professional satisfaction.

Our program was created to serve our community and we have multiple opportunities for residents to be involved in impactful community events.  Residents participated in health education at local parks, clubs, organizations, schools, and news outlets. Teddy Bear clinics and sport physicals allow residents to interact with and serve pediatric patients in our region. During the pandemic our residents were crucial to providing the screening, education, and treatment for coronavirus in our community.  Residents and faculty also longitudinally rotate at Smith Clinic which provides free care to uninsured patients in Georgetown County.

A key to an excellent training program is the quality of the residents and faculty who form it.  We are fortunate to have a diverse and cohesive group of talented residents who are supportive of one another.  We also have dedicated and enthusiastic faculty who love to teach, get to know you personally, and are nationally recognized for their teaching and leadership. 

We are committed to training residents who can excel in practice anywhere. Tidelands Health provides a rich variety of patient complexity. We see patients who have chosen to come to the area from all over the United States. Here, you will be trained to become a lifelong learner, and we’ll enable you to provide evidence-based care to your patients.

Tidelands Health is committed to the program’s success, as evidenced by the state-of-the-art education and clinical residency center built specifically for the family medicine residency program.  The residency facility is located in one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States and features clinical, teaching, and lounge space that was specifically designed for the residents.

The lifestyle here is unparalleled. There are great restaurants with fresh seafood, live music, and shopping.  The area has a plethora of outdoor activities that include watersports, fishing, hiking, and extensive bike paths. There are also magnificent gardens, state parks, and pristine beaches where you can surf or paddleboard after a long shift. Charleston is a short drive south and Myrtle Beach a short drive north.

The Tidelands Health MUSC Family Medicine Residency Program is supportive, challenging, flexible, innovative, and responsive to the needs of the resident physician. Our humanistic culture was recently recognized when we were chosen as one of only three institutions in the country as a finalist for the Gold Humanism/ACGME Baldwin Award.  Because of our collaborative culture, this is a program you can help shape, grow, and develop. We think the possibilities are endless. I could write pages commending the virtues of our program, because I believe we have one of the best training programs in the country.  Instead, I invite you to apply and come see for yourself!

Mike Malone, MD

Program Director, Designated Institutional Official for GME