Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program

The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship represents a dynamic process responding to the requirements of the ACGME and the American Board of Pediatrics, Subspecialty Board of Certification in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. The three-year curriculum has been developed by a very experienced group of both clinical and research faculty with the goal of preparing fellows to become competent pediatric infectious disease clinicians and capable bench and/or clinical researchers.  Two fellows are trained in each year of the fellowship.

Clinical Experience
Clinical experience in infectious diseases (ID) is gained at Nationwide Children’s Hospital through rotations on a unique ID ward, in-patient consult service, and in a number of out-patient clinics. Only a small number of pediatric ID programs in the United States offer a ward experience where the fellow is exposed to both primary care pediatric ID and complex referral problems in a setting where he/she will function as the attending physician. This affords the fellow a great opportunity to teach both housestaff and medical students, as well as to develop improved clinical management and patient/family interactive skills. The in-patient consult service exposes the fellow to complex ID in a variety of patient settings (e.g. post-operative, CCU/NICU/PICU, immunocompromised/transplant patients), as well as routine pediatric ID. In the out-patient setting the fellow spends time in the Nationwide Children's ID, HIV, Immunology and International Adoption Clinics, and at the Columbus Department of Health STI Clinic. The fellow will spend a minimum of 12 months during the 3 year fellowship in clinically related activities. Fellows interested in a more clinically related experience can spend additional months in these activities.

Didactic Instruction
Didactic instruction is received through a number of venues including:

• First year Microbiology/Virology Lab Experience

• The Infectious Diseases Society of America/Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Infection Control Fellows Course

• The CDC on-line STI training module

• ID Section Journal Club

• Morbidity and Mortality Conferences

• Clinical Case Conferences

• Monthly Faculty Fellowship Lecture Series

• Annual Pediatric ID Conference

• ID Clinical Pharmacist Antimicrobial Pharmacokinets/Pharmocodynamics/Adverse Effects Module

• Research Lab

• Journal Club

• Research Update meetings

• Department of Pediatrics weekly Grand Rounds

• ACGME Core Competencies Lecture Series

• Core Research Series

• The Research Institute Speaker Series

Fellows also have the opportunity to take courses at The Ohio State University and enroll in the MPH program in the College of Public Health.

Research Experience
The Research Institute supports research activities on the campus of Nationwide Children's Hospital. The Research Institute is organized into 13 Centers of Emphasis (two of which specifically address research issues in ID – Centers for Microbial Pathogenesis and Vaccines and Immunity) In addition to two existing research buildings with 293,000 square feet of space, a third state of the art, 225,000 square foot, research facility opened in 2012.  More than 700 investigators and employees work in the research laboratories and offices. The Research Institute's mission is to transform the health of children in our community and throughout the world. In 2006, The Research Institute received a record $41.7 million in external funding, including a 29 percent increase in funding from the National Institutes of Health, established The Center for Quantitative and Computational Biology, adding state-of-the-art quantitative methods as another option for basic and clinical research, and supported the first human gene therapy trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The Center for Translational Research was established in 2007 with the mission of applying the findings of bench research directly to the patient. The fellow will be introduced to the research faculty early in the fellowship and will select a mentor with whom he/she will work towards completion of the scholarly activity requirement of the  American Board of Pediatrics. A Scholarship Oversight Committee will be developed to assist the fellow in accomplishing this goal.

Administrative Experience
The fellow’s administrative experience and exposure to the health care system and community resources are afforded by attendance at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Infection Control Committee meetings and meetings dealing with community ID issues at the City of Columbus Health Department. Away electives that would allow the fellow to gain exposure to health care systems in other parts of the world are encouraged and supported financially.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries

• Medical and dental health care

• Group life and disability insurance

• Moving and relocation assistance

• Ohio medical license fees

• AAP, PIDS, and IDSA membership dues paid

• 3 weeks of vacation and 6 paid holidays annually

• 21 days paid medical leave over the 3 year course of the program

• 7 days professional leave for meetings per year with funding assistance

• Home on-call 1 in 6 nights average