Curriculum

Our two-year training program is designed to offer the fellow comprehensive clinical training experiences and flexible research opportunities.

The first year of fellowship has an emphasis on clinical training. During this year, fellows spend the majority of time on clinical services including general infectious disease consults, transplant infectious diseases consults, (solid organ transplant and bone marrow transplant/oncology), and our inpatient HIV Service. In addition to clinical rotations, first-year fellows have dedicated rotations in the microbiology lab, with our Antimicrobial Stewardship team, and on research.

The second year of fellowship has an emphasis on scholarly productivity and fellows spend approximately 10 weeks on inpatient clinical service. Second-year curriculum can be tailored to individual interests, and our program is able to offer a multitude of elective opportunities, including rotations in parasitology, infectious diseases in settings of incarceration, travel medicine, outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy, and substance use disorders (to name a few). Those interested in additional training in transplant infectious diseases have the option to complete our Transplant Infectious Diseases Track during their second year. The curriculum for this track is described separately below.

Each fellow has a weekly continuity clinic at either Mount Sinai or Elmhurst Hospital Center for the entirety of the two-year fellowship. Fellows learn infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship throughout their fellowship and also have formalized rotations with our Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention/Hospital Epidemiology teams. All fellows will be given guidance and the opportunity to pursue scholarly projects during their training. Starting in the fall of first year, fellows will have periodic meetings with a mentorship committee panel which serves to assist fellows in finding research, clinical, and career mentors. Through this pathway, fellows will be able to further develop scholarly interests and forge relevant connections and collaborations.

Potential areas for scholarly activity for fellows at Mount Sinai include but are not limited to:

  • Antimicrobial stewardship and antibiotic resistance
  • Clinical and translational research including behavioral, epidemiology, genomics, and interventional trials
  • Diagnostic stewardship
  • HIV laboratory research, including pathogenesis, therapeutics, and vaccine development
  • Host pathogen interactions
  • Infection control and prevention and hospital epidemiology
  • Molecular diagnostics and epidemiology
  • Transplant infectious disease
  • Virology, including coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), cytomegalovirus, flaviviruses, and influenza

Fellows will also gain experience in quality improvement projects during their fellowship and will be able to pursue activities in medical education with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, both in classroom and clinical settings. Finally, fellows have the potential option for a third year of fellowship which would be dedicated to research if this aligns with their career path and goals.

1st Year Rotation Pie Chart

2nd Year Rotation Pie Chart

Fellows who are interested in pursuing careers focused in Transplant Infectious Diseases (TID) or Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infection Prevention (AS/IP) can participate in the TID or AS/IP Track during their second year of training. Learn more about these specialized training tracks below.

The Transplant Infectious Diseases (TID) track is a training path available to second-year infectious disease fellows at The Mount Sinai Hospital who are interested in a career in transplant infectious diseases. The TID track is an opportunity for focused clinical and research experience with the immunosuppressed host and has the following components.

Inpatient: Fellows on the TID track spend additional structured time on solid organ transplant infectious disease and bone marrow transplant/oncology infectious diseases consult services during their second year of fellowship training. TID fellows function as the senior fellow when on the inpatient service, and in addition to seeing patients, have the opportunity to participate in teaching junior and visiting fellows.

Ambulatory: TID fellows see outpatients at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Cardiology Ventricular Assist Device Clinic, the Transplant Infectious Diseases Clinic, and at the Mount Sinai Respiratory Institute. They attend one half-day session per week in transplant clinics except when they are on an inpatient consult service.

Research component: TID fellows participate in scholarly projects related to transplant infectious diseases under the guidance of a dedicated mentor from the transplant infectious disease faculty. All fellows present their scholarly work at the end of their second year of fellowship with the ultimate goal to submit an abstract to a relevant national or international meeting and prepare a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. TID fellows also participate in transplant-focused educational activities, including a weekly case discussion meeting and monthly TID academic hour and have the opportunity to attend the annual American Society of Transplantation Fellows Symposium.

Supervision: This track has been developed by Sarah Taimur, MD, Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Fellowship Track, and Meenakshi Rana, MD, Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases. Fellows on this track are mentored by Drs. Taimur and Rana and are supervised by our Transplant Infectious Diseases faculty when on the TID services. Fellows on the TID track are not required to do any additional weekday or weekend call aside from the call days assigned to them as part of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Infectious Diseases Fellowship.

The Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) and Infection Prevention (IP) track is a training path available to one second-year infectious disease fellow at The Mount Sinai Hospital each year who is interested in a career in AS/IP. This track is an opportunity for additional clinical, administrative, and research experience under the supervision of core AS/IP faculty for fellows interested in gaining expertise and skills needed to prepare for a career in health care epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship. Track leadership includes Rachel Chasan, MD, MPH, Antimicrobial Stewardship Director at The Mount Sinai Hospital, Gopi Patel, MD, Hospital Epidemiologist at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Antimicrobial Stewardship Director for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Rebecca Choudhury, MD, Hospital Epidemiologist and Antimicrobial Stewardship Lead at Mount Sinai Queens. The AS/IP Track Curriculum has the following core components which are tailored towards individual fellow interests and professional development.

Clinical

The AS/IP track fellow will gain experience with AS interventions, including prospective audit and feedback and prior authorization of restricted antimicrobials. They will also have dedicated rounding time with the IP team and opportunity to participate in discussions regarding high-consequence infectious diseases (special pathogens). Their clinical curriculum will be rounded out with dedicated rotations with our Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy program and Microbiology department, with a particular emphasis on principles related to diagnostic test performance and diagnostic stewardship.

Administrative/Leadership Training

The AS/IP track fellow will be expected to participate in relevant (monthly or bi-monthly) meetings, including AS committee meetings, IP committee meetings, Diagnostic Stewardship committee meetings, and Department of Medicine Quality Improvement committee meetings. Additionally, they will assist with cluster/contact investigations and work with key stakeholders on AS/IP projects as the need arises.

Scholarly Work

The AS/IP track fellow will pursue at least one AS/IP project under the mentorship of a core faculty member with the goal of dissemination through local and (inter)national presentations and manuscript publication. They will also be involved in the development of Health System guidance for antimicrobial use and educational initiatives for other trainees on relevant topics of interest.  

Coursework

The AS/IP track fellow will pursue coursework through the advanced Infectious Disease Society of America Antimicrobial Stewardship curriculum and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Primer on Healthcare Epidemiology Infection Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship with structured oversight and mentorship from track leadership.

There are a number of regularly scheduled conferences and didactic sessions throughout the fellowship program.

Case Conference
This is an integrated conference during which our adult and pediatric infectious diseases fellows throughout the Mount Sinai Health System present interesting cases from the consult services, the inpatient HIV service, or ambulatory settings. The case presentations are complemented by a review of relevant medical literature. Periodic Quality Improvement updates and presentations from leaders in microbiology and Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infection Prevention are incorporated into the weekly case conference schedule.

Academic Half Day
Thursday afternoons are protected from clinical activities for all fellows as an Academic Half Day (AHD). AHD features a comprehensive didactic lecture series, clinical reasoning conferences, deliberate practice exercises, and structured activities related to mentorship and wellness. Speakers include experts from within the Division of Infectious Diseases as well as experts from divisions that often collaborate with Infectious Diseases in the clinical setting such as OB/GYN, Ophthalmology, Radiology, and Allergy/Immunology. A longitudinal ambulatory HIV curriculum is also integrated into AHD that covers the principles of and evidence behind HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy, infectious and medical complications of HIV infection and treatment, and comorbidities seen in HIV seropositive individuals.

Microbiology Plate Rounds
Fellows attend weekly rounds where they review the microbiology and pathology specimens of clinical cases. These sessions are supervised and taught by faculty directors of the microbiology lab.

Infectious Diseases and Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute (GHEPI) Grand Rounds
This is a weekly conference for the GHEPI. A variety of topics predicated on basic and clinical research are presented by expert speakers from Mount Sinai and other institutions.

Clinical Grand Rounds

On a monthly basis, experts in the field are invited to give Clinical Grand Rounds, which feature updates in a variety of important topics in clinical infectious diseases.  

Journal Club
Journal club is an integrated conference with all the infectious disease fellows in the Mount Sinai Health System. Both recent and landmark articles are reviewed and key concepts in the critical appraisal of literature are taught.

Immunocompromised Lecture Series
This lecture series occurs approximately once monthly and focuses on topics relevant to the immunocompromised host including invasive fungal infections, donor-derived infections, post-hematopoietic stem cell transplant pulmonary syndromes, cytomegalovirus, among others.

The General Infectious Diseases Consultation Service provides the fellow with extensive experience in the diagnosis and management of infections in patients on a variety of services, including internal medicine, neurology, surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology. In addition, there is extensive exposure to the management of infections in critically ill patients (MICU, CCU, SICU, and NSICU).

Transplant Infectious Diseases Consultation Services

  • The Solid Organ Transplant (SOT) Infectious Diseases service consult on patients after liver, kidney, lung, heart, and small bowel transplant in addition to helping manage infectious complications in these patients before transplant, including infections in patients with ventricular assist devices and total artificial hearts. The SOT Infectious Diseases consult service is subdivided into SOT A for liver, kidney, and intestinal transplant, and SOT B for heart transplant, cardiac devices, and lung transplant. Fellows spend half of their SOT ID rotations on SOT A and half on SOT B.
  • The Bone Marrow Transplant/Oncology Infectious Diseases service sees patients with hematologic malignancies, patients undergoing autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants, CAR-T cell therapy, and solid oncology patients on active tumor directed therapies.

The Elmhurst Infectious Diseases Consultation Service at the Elmhurst Hospital Center, a city hospital located in Elmhurst, Queens that provides care to the nation's most internationally diverse community, is a truly unique experience. Patients served by this hospital are predominantly immigrants from all over the world including Central and South America, the Mediterranean basin, Asia, and Africa. As a result, fellows gain extensive experience in a broad range of international and tropical infections such as tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, and other parasitic diseases.

The Inpatient HIV Medicine (Silver Medicine) Rotation provides the fellow with direct experience in the management of hospitalized patients with HIV. This service is a general medicine service with internal medicine house staff teams. While on Silver, the fellow will gain expertise in the management of routine and opportunistic infections as well as complications of antiretroviral therapy or related comorbid conditions. This rotation allows fellows to develop their educational skills as they help teach and supervise internal medicine residents and medical students.

Tuberculosis (TB)  Clinic: Fellows learn about the screening, diagnosis, and management of tuberculosis while on consult services and through didactics and case conferences. To complement this experience, second-year fellows rotate through the Elmhurst Hospital Center outpatient TB clinic to reinforce principles and practical experience in managing tuberculosis infections in the outpatient setting. 

Training in Microbiology: Fellows participate in a formal four-week microbiology rotation under the supervision of Melissa Gitman, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology, during their first year of fellowship. Embedded in this rotation is a didactic curriculum on foundational topics in addition to a hands-on experience and instruction related to lab workflow, culture media, various diagnostic technologies, and performance characteristics of tests used in microbiology. In addition, weekly microbiology rounds are held to review cases being managed on consult services in real-time.

Training in Infection Prevention/Hospital Epidemiology and Antimicrobial Stewardship: Although infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship are taught throughout all clinical rotations, fellows undergo formal training with structured rotations led by antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention leadership. These rotations introduce fellows to foundational concepts in both domains including stewardship interventions (e.g., prospective audit/feedback, prior authorization), diagnostic stewardship, outbreak investigation, epidemic preparedness, and more.

Continuity Clinic: Each fellow is assigned a weekly continuity clinic at either the Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center or Elmhurst Hospital Center. The fellow will be responsible for attending this clinic throughout the two years. The clinic population at each site has a primary emphasis on the outpatient management of HIV, including the use of long-acting injectable therapy, general infectious diseases outpatient consult questions, and management of various chronic infections.