Pediatric infectious diseases fellowship program

In accordance with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements, our training program provides 12 months of clinical experience offering both inpatient and outpatient consultations with an attending physician. The majority of these clinical months occur in the first year of the fellowship to provide exposure to a diverse range of infectious diseases. To provide a unique continuity experience that continues throughout the 36 months of fellowship, the fellows also participate in a weekly half-day session of HIV family clinics starting in the first year. This provides direct experience managing a variety of issues of pediatric HIV patients (perinatal exposed and infected infants and children as well as HIV-infected adolescents). 

In the first month of the first year, the subspecialty resident rotates through the clinical microbiology and virology laboratories (along with the first-year internal medicine infectious disease fellows) to become familiar with specimen collection and processing, diagnostic laboratory techniques and interpretation of laboratory results. There is also a month rotation on the infection control service to provide an educational experience in hospital infection control and epidemiologic principles that complements a didactic lecture series on these principles. Throughout the training program, there are numerous opportunities for residents to develop teaching skills through lectures to the core pediatric residency program and presentations at various conferences. 

In accordance with ACGME requirements, the PID training program at CHoR provides 24 months of research experience for each subspecialty resident. During the first year, each fellow is provided time to explore research opportunities throughout the VCU Medical Center and to identify a research mentor in either the basic or clinical sciences. Many research opportunities exist within the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, but fellows are also encouraged to consider research mentors in a variety of other basic science and clinical departments within the university according to individual interests. 

The second and third year provide the fellows with the opportunity to pursue a focused research project. During this protected research time, the fellow is expected to gain experience designing and conducting hypothesis-driven research with the ideal result of submitting a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Trainees are encouraged to attend regional or national meetings for educational experiences as well as to present their research. 

The Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases convenes a biweekly clinical conference to discuss recent inpatient and outpatient consultation. This conference also provides a forum for reviewing and evaluating medical literature on topics pertinent to these cases, for discussions regarding systems-based practice and to provide practice-based learning and improvement.? The fellow directing the inpatient consultation service is responsible for preparing and presenting selected cases at this conference. 

While on the consultation service, subspecialty residents in both pediatric and internal medicine infectious diseases attend laboratory rounds with the clinical microbiology director in the virology and microbiology laboratory.?Here, fellows observe the laboratory workup and findings of current patient specimens from both their own consultation cases and other interesting patients at VCU Medical Center. 

Several additional conferences are shared with the internal medicine division of infectious diseases, including weekly infectious diseases grand rounds, a didactic lecture series on topics in clinical infectious diseases (using the Mandell textbook as a guide), an HIV lecture series, an epidemiology didactic lecture series and a journal club. Fellows are required to attend these conferences and lecture series throughout their training. 

Dual fellowship programs, combining training in infectious diseases with other specialties in pediatric medicine, can be constructed with the consent of the American Board of Pediatrics. Our training program has attracted and graduated many fellows with dual specialty training in infectious diseases.