Our training program prepares fellows for careers in pediatric pulmonary medicine by developing expertise in caring for infants and children with a broad range of lung diseases, including

In addition, fellows will master the skills of flexible bronchoscopy and interpretation of pulmonary function testing.

Service Time

Fellows will function in a supervisory role during their training program with guidance provided by members of the Division faculty. Clinical duties include coverage of the pulmonary inpatient service and the consultation service. Service time is divided into 13 four-week blocks over the course of a year, with the majority of the inpatient clinical duties occurring during the first year of Fellowship (8-9 four-week blocks). The remaining inpatient time divided between the second- and third-year fellows (2–3 four-week blocks each year).

The inpatient service cares for patients with varied clinical conditions, including cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, severe asthma and rare lung disease. The consult service is responsible for seeing and leaving recommendations for patients with various pulmonary concerns for the pediatric and ICU teams through out the hospital. Additionally, this service is responsible for emergent and in-patient bronchoscopies. There are also 2 attending/nurse practitioner services that follow patients with pulmonary hypertension and chronic mechanical ventilation and provide support to the consult team.

The breakdown of service time allows fellows to become increasingly independent over the course of their training, as well as allowing research mentors and projects to be explored during the first year of fellowship.

Call Schedule

Service fellows take overnight call 3 weeknights Monday through Thursday night on weeks when they are covering the inpatient service with the service attending taking the 4th night. Weekend coverage is 5 p.m. Friday evening until 7 a.m. Monday morning and is covered by a fellow with a faculty member or a faculty member alone. Clinical fellows will each cover, on average, one weekend out of a four-week block.

Outpatient Clinic

Each fellow is assigned a single half-day clinic per week to care for their own panel of pulmonary patients under the supervision of the division faculty. The patients followed in this clinic include the gambit of pulmonary disorders. Additionally, fellows may participate in cystic fibrosis clinic, the Complex Aero Digestive Evaluation Team (CADET), ILD Clinic, Sleep or Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Clinic as determined by their independent learning and career goals. 

Electives

Each fellow will be exposed to a diverse Pulmonary sub-specialty "Clinic Salad" for a one-month elective during both 2nd and 3rd years of their fellowship. These clinics include Sleep, Cystic Fibrosis, Severe Asthma, Aerodigestive, Rare Lung Disease/ILD, Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, Neuromuscular/Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Technology Dependence and Refractory OSA Clinic (with ENT). This rotation allows the fellow to experience the outpatient and longitudinal management of many of the chronic conditions seen on the inpatient service, often in a multidisciplinary fashion, with experts in the respective fields. Fellows are also encouraged to follow their own patients with these conditions in these specialty clinics to increase their educational exposures.

Additional electives are offered in Pediatric Intensive Care, Allergy, and ENT.

Fellows also have the opportunity to develop their own electives to match their individual career goals.

Bronchoscopy

Fellows are provided an exemplary bronchoscopy experience, including experience with Bronchial Alveolar Lavage (BAL) and mucosal biopsy. Each fellow will typically complete 150 to 250 procedures during fellowship. The service/consult fellow is responsible for all inpatient bronchoscopies, as well as assigned aerodigestive cases and may participate on other elective outpatient procedures at their discretion. Each fellow is responsible to perform procedures on any primary panel patient that they follow as well. Funds are available to send the first-year fellow to an annual Bronchoscopy training course.

Scholarly Activity

Fellows will be expected to design and implement a research project over the course of their fellowship. Time is provided during the first year of fellowship to establish mentorship and explore potential research projects.

Possible research projects vary depending on the fellow's clinical and research interests, and may vary from clinical research, laboratory-based basic science research, or educational-based research. A Scholarship Oversight Committee (SOC) will be established with each fellow to provide additional guidance towards successful completion of each project, with the expectation that each project effort will result in manuscript(s) for presentation and national meetings and submission to an academic journal.

Additionally, each fellow will participate in quality improvement projects/initiatives during their fellowship. It is the expectation by both the program and ACGME that each fellow develops, implements, and follows progress of a QI project during their fellowship in an area of their choosing with the guidance of a faculty member.

Support and guidance in the pursuit of training grants (T32) is also supported and encouraged by the program faculty.

Click here for more information about research opportunities during fellowship.