Education

The curriculum is organized to provide fellows with meaningful experience during rotations on inpatient consult service, ambulatory HIV Clinic, Department of Infection Control, Microbiology laboratory, and research.

Fellow Block Rotation Schedule

The cumulative duration of the rotations in weeks, excluding vacation time, for the first and second year fellows is outlined below:

Continuity HIV Clinic Schedule

Clinical inpatient rotations: Consultation services are provided for both general medical and surgical conditions, in addition to patients with immunodeficiency syndromes such as HIV/AIDS, solid organ transplant patients, a wide array of oncologic and hematologic malignancies, and rheumatologic conditions. Infections in patients with bone marrow transplantation will be managed by fellows during rotation at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital. This environment will provide fellows the opportunity to hone their clinical and diagnostic skills, fortify their ability to interpret complex microbiologic data, and gain critical experience in managing complex infectious diseases pathology.

HIV Clinic: The Positive Health Clinic, housed on the campus of Allegheny General Hospital, is a Ryan White funded clinic that takes care of over 750 patients, and on average, acquires 100 new patients annually. It is staffed by 5 board certified infectious disease physicians, 2 CRNPs, 3 nurses, 1 pharmacist, 3 social workers, 1 patient advocate, 2 medical assistants, 2 clerical support staff, 1 data/quality management specialist, and 1 administrative manager. Historically, patient retention has remained above 80% and this reflects the comprehensive and individualized care offered by both the medical staff and a cohort of other health care personnel.

Microbiology: The Department of Microbiology at the core laboratory consists of Bacteriology, Mycobacteriology, Mycology, Parasitology, Immunology/Serology, Virology and the Molecular diagnostics section. This fully operational laboratory has 50 technologists. The laboratory combines the latest state of the art technology and the classical methodology for the isolation, identification and the susceptibility testing of various microorganisms. The virology/molecular diagnostics lab uses a combination of both conventional shell vial cell system and the latest real time and conventional PCR based system. The lab currently uses the state of the art real time PCR for quantitation of both HIV and HCV.

Infection Prevention and Control: Infection control and prevention is an integral component of Infectious Diseases. The program will educate and train fellows in this field via numerous means. Fellows will rotate within the Infection Control department for 2 weeks in each year of training. Infection control issues will be discussed during teaching rounds on an ongoing basis as they would relate and be applicable to the patients seen on the consult service. The fellows will be mandated to attend the Infection Control Committee that is held on a quarterly basis at Allegheny General Hospital. As active members of this committee, the fellows will participate and assist as consultants in surveillance activities of the infection control department.

Research: Research and scholarly activities are integral component of the fellowship program. Eight weeks, each in the first and second years of fellowship will be dedicated to research and scholarly activities. The goal of this rotation is to train fellows in the research arena so that they develop an appreciation for the critical elements of clinical research and scholarly writing.