Curriculum and Program Design

Each fellow will be assigned to nine months of consultation service and 2 months of research per year.

Consultation Services

Inpatient Infectious Diseases Consultation Service and HIV Consultation Service

Daily teaching rounds in which consultations are discussed in detail and didactic presentations are made. These also include bedside discussion and evaluation of patients. Sources of consultations include Medical, Surgical, Psychiatric, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Adult Intensive Care Units (Medical, Surgical Units and Burn unit), Coronary Care Unit, Hemodialysis Unit, and the Adult Emergency Department.

Infectious Diseases/HIV Continuity Clinic

Weekly outpatient clinic session in the Infectious Disease/ HIV clinic in which case discussions occur regarding diagnosis and management of HIV diseases and other infectious diseases. Each trainee is assigned one clinic session per week, where continuity care is provided. Trainees will manage between 6-8 patients per session. A supervising attending physician is assigned to each clinic session to supervise and teach the trainees.

Harlem Hospital Pediatric Infectious Diseases Consultation Service and Ambulatory Care

This is a 4-week rotation in a very broad-based discipline. Fellow will be provided training in the general approach to the pediatric patients from an infectious disease point of view. This view draws from six major areas: epidemiology, pathogenesis, immunology, diagnostics, therapy, and prevention.

Microbiology Laboratory Service at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

During the first year of training each fellow is assigned to two weeks in the clinical microbiology laboratory at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH). The Director of the Microbiology laboratory supervises this rotation and this enables the trainee to gain experience in the conduct and interpretation of various diagnostic tests

Infectious Diseases Rotation in the Cancer, Solid Organ, and Bone Marrow Transplant Service

During the second year of training the fellow will be assigned to 4 weeks to this service at NYPH. The purpose of the rotation is to gain experience in the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of Infectious complications in cancer patients, solid organ and bone marrow transplant recipients, infections in immunocompromised and neutropenic hosts. The rotation will be under the supervision of the Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at NYPH or his/her designee.

Scholarly Activities and Conferences

Each trainee will have four months of protected time during the two years of training, for scholarly activities. The trainees’ will be involved in the ongoing research activities in the division. In addition, each trainee is encouraged to design an individual research project to focus on during his or her training. The trainees are expected to submit results of their research for presentation and publication.

Fellows are required to actively participate in performance improvement (PI), and quality assurance (QA) projects in the division of infectious diseases. Each fellow is required to plan a PI and a QA project, analyze the data and implement a corrective action plan/ intervention in an area that needs improvement in patient care. The fellow will work with a supervising attending physician and or quality assurance coordinator for the division of infectious diseases.

Conferences

• Weekly didactic Infectious Diseases conference at Harlem Hospital
• Monthly Journal club at Harlem Hospital
• Twice weekly didactic Infectious Diseases conference at NYPH
• Monthly mortality/morbidity conference
• Monthly infectious Diseases grand rounds
• Weekly New York/New Jersey citywide Infectious Diseases Rounds
• Monthly research conference
• Infection Control practices through participation in Infection Control Committee activities and monthly meetings

Other learning activities include: Social/ethical issues, patient safety, and quality of care education.

Supervision of Residents by Faculty  

Inpatient consultation service: Rounds are conducted 5 days per week with the faculty-attending physician.  All new consults and follow-ups will be presented and discussed during rounds with the attending physician. Discussions will include review of relevant laboratory, radiologic and pathological data and pertinent literature. A written consult, which is reviewed and signed by the attending physician, will be submitted. The fellow will communicate the plan of management to the house staff and the primary attending physician.

Ambulatory care:  Every patient encounter is discussed with the supervising attending physician before the patient leaves the clinic and every note is co-signed by the attending physician.

Evaluation Process

Oral feedback of clinical and didactic performance occurs on a daily basis through close observation by the assigned teaching faculty. At the end of the rotation, the attending physician will provide a formal oral summary evaluation as well as a written evaluation via “New Innovations” system based on the ACGME competencies. Fellows can review their evaluations at any time by logging on to this system.

Fellows will also evaluate the faculty anonymously as well as the training program.

Graded Authority and Increasing Responsibilities

The Program Director and the faculty will determine each fellow’s ability to assume progressive authority and responsibility based on the evaluations.