The clinical training emphasizes the diagnosis and management of acute and chronic respiratory diseases, with emphasis on the practical application of pulmonary physiological and biologic principles to all aspects of critical care, consultative chest medicine, rehabilitation, pulmonary hypertension, lung cancer, and sleep medicine. During pulmonary blocks, fellows will evaluate and manage a breadth of common and rare pulmonary illnesses, learn pulmonary and sleep physiology and develop expertise in advanced pulmonary procedures. During critical care blocks, fellows will manage our intensive care units gaining experience in all aspects of critical care management, end of life care, ultrasonography and procedures.
Year 1: The first year is dedicated to developing the foundations of clinical training in pulmonary and critical care medicine and subspecialty critical care medicine. This includes training in the management of patients in surgical intensive care/trauma, neuro-critical care, cardiac critical care and palliative care medicine.
Year 2: During the second year of fellowship, fellows further their clinical expertise in pulmonary medicine with rotations on pulmonary subspecialty services, including, severe asthma clinic, bronchiectasis, pulmonary hypertension, lung transplant/advanced lung disease, pulmonary physiology and sleep medicine. Fellows in their second year also focus on scholarly activities and work closely with mentors to develop an individualized pathway to meet their career goals.
Year 3: The goal of the third year is to develop clinical expertise in a specific area of a fellow’s choosing, complete scholarly activity and build on educational and leadership skills.
An equally important aspect of our program is training fellows to independently and expertly perform a vast array of pulmonary and critical care procedures. Our training program includes in-depth preparation in:
- Intubation with video and direct laryngoscopy
- Management of the difficult airway
- Flexible bronchoscopy
- Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)
- Short and long-term chest thoracostomy tube insertion and maintenance
- Pleurodesis and pleural biopsy
- Critical Care Ultrasonography/Point-of-care ultrasonography
- Interpretation of pulmonary function tests, airway responsiveness testing and cardiopulmonary exercise testing
- Treatment of primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension
- Percutaneous Tracheostomies
A unique aspect of our program is the pairing of a comprehensive foundation of clinical training with an individualized pathway for career development. Fellows are deeply engaged in learning research, quality improvement, teaching and leadership skills. We have an expectation that our fellows participate in scholarly projects; fellows routinely present their research at national meetings and publish in peer-reviewed journals. Our goal is to help our fellows succeed and become leaders in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Many of our graduates have gone on to become innovative clinician-educators and leaders in medical education and hospital administration.