Educational Program
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Our curriculum consists of five major components.
1. Inpatient Infectious Disease Consult Services: Fellows will rotate on the inpatient consult services at Palmetto Health Richland and William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Administration Hospital (Dorn VA) Facilities. Palmetto Health Richland is one of the largest and busiest hospitals in the area and serves as a referral center for central South Carolina. The Dorn VA is the largest veterans hospital in the area. In both hospitals, inpatient consultations are performed under the supervision of the attending physician. Teaching is integrated with patient case discussions. Our goal is to provide training, mentoring, and clinical experience in consultative services related to the care and management of hospitalized adults with infectious diseases. By the end of the fellowship the fellow should complete between 12–14 months combined at these sites. At these sites the fellow will see a minimum of 250 consults over the course of their fellowship.
2. Ambulatory Infectious Disease Clinic: Each fellow will have a continuity clinic throughout the fellowship. Fellows will have 1–2 sessions per week in The Immunology Center, which is the combined Ryan White and Infectious Disease clinic.
The Immunology Center, managed through the USC School of Medicine, is the central coordinating body for the federally funded Ryan White Treatment Extension Act – Part B program, serving an eight-county area in the Midlands of South Carolina. The Immunology Center Ryan White clinic is the largest HIV/AIDS clinic in the region. There are approximately 1400 patients currently enrolled, and about 25 new patients are seen each month. The Immunology Center provides medical care, medical case management, substance abuse screening, referral and treatment, medications assistance, mental health services, perinatal HIV prevention case management, HIV discharge planning from the SC Department of Corrections, and other services to unfunded and underinsured people living with HIV/AIDS. The MCC has provided medical care and support services since September 1993. It serves a diverse community with broad ethnic and social backgrounds. Fellows are exposed to the whole range of possible clinical presentations of HIV/AIDS, including but not exclusively: opportunistic infections, metabolic complications, medications side effects, drug resistance, and ethical issues. In addition to the Ryan White HIV services, the Immunology Center is the location for our general infectious disease ambulatory practice. Held simultaneously at the same location you will see general infectious disease consults including hospital infectious disease follow-ups; non-Ryan White HIV consults and referrals from community physicians. Patients have a variety of infectious diseases, ranging from complex surgical and orthopedic infections, HIV, tropical/travel medicine, and zoonoses to general infectious diseases. Fellows build their own clinic panel of patients. Over the course of the fellowship, this panel is expected to grow to more than 40 patients, ensuring adequate follow-up.
3. Conference Series (Didactic and Case Conference): Conference Series consists of Didactic lectures, Journal Club, Research Conferences and Case Conferences. Conferences complement the clinical experience and provide formal instruction on all aspects of infectious disease including (but not limited to) hospital epidemiology, infection control, microbiology, infections in patients with major impairments of host defense, research methodology as well as to provide a forum to discuss up-to-date literature, controversy in infectious disease, medical errors and complications and management of complicated patients.
For a list of conferences click here.
4. Research and Scholarly Activities: Research training is done through the Research Lecture Series, Journal Club and research mentoring. Our goal is to advance the fellow's knowledge of the basic principles of research, including how such research is conducted, evaluated, explained to patients and applied to patient care. By six months into fellowship training each fellow is expected to identify a research mentor and complete their Institutional Review Board training. At the end of the fellowship training fellows are expected to complete a research or quality improvement project and demonstrate evidence of scholarly activity either through publications in a peer reviewed journal or presentation at a national meeting.
5. Specialty Rotations (Pediatric Infectious Disease, Microbiology, Transplant Infectious Disease, Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, Antimicrobial Stewardship and Public Health): Our goal is to provide additional clinical experience and training in the specialty area. We offer several specialty rotations that are not part of the ACGME requirements, but will enhance the fellow's training and experience. Each fellow is expected to complete a one month rotation in each: Pediatric Infectious Disease, Microbiology and Transplant Infectious Disease. In addition, fellows will, at minimum receive two weeks of antimocrobial stewardship instruction, learning the practical and therapeutic aspects of antimicrobial therapy. By the end of the second year each fellow is expected to complete the online IDSA/SHEA Infection Control Fellows Course. Depending on the individual's interest, rotations can be arranged to gain additional experience in pediatric infectious disease, public health, antimicrobial stewardship, private practice infectious disease, transplant infectious disease, and international training.