Brown Medical School's Infectious Disease Division offers a fellowship encompassing all the Brown University based teaching hospitals. The spectrum of activities in clinical infectious diseases extends from evaluation of the patient with newly diagnosed HIV infection or an STD, to care of the ICU patient with nosocomial pneumonia, to management of complicated infections in the transplant patient. The advent of virologic and bacteriologic resistance throughout our health care systems poses increasing challenges.

The cornerstone of the fellowship program is exposure to the full array of infectious diseases in both the inpatient consultation service and in the busy outpatient ambulatory arena. There are specific rotations in an active comprehensive TB clinic and a busy STD clinic. All fellows participate in both an outpatient consultative clinic and a longitudinal ambulatory experience. In all these areas, one-on-one teaching is provided by faculty members experienced in infectious diseases and committed to the education of fellows, residents and medical students. The clinical training program is complimented by a didactic program reviewing clinically relevant topics in Infectious Diseases, teaching "literature analysis" and exposing trainees to new areas of investigation.

The Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Brown University is at The Academic Medical Center at Lifespan which combines Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. The core clinical rotations and the teaching faculty have both been enhanced by this new affiliation. The fellowship is a two year program with an optional third year of training possible for individuals wishing to continue clinical or laboratory based research projects or to add specialization in areas such as international health or HIV.

Special programs at Brown University include The Center for AIDS Research, Brown University AIDS Program, and the International Health Institute. These programs all welcome collaboration with infectious disease fellows. The ability for fellows to rotate overseas at one of our active clinical research sites is a wonderful opportunity. Currently projects are taking place in Southern India, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Kenya.

Clinical training is the focus of the first year of the fellowship and consists of two to three months of rotation at each of the four major training sites - Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and the Roger Williams Medical Center/Veterans Administration Medical Center consultative service. A one month ambulatory block provides the opportunity to rotate through the TB service, the STD clinic and the outpatient infectious disease consult program. Throughout the year, fellows have a longitudinal/ambulatory clinic one half day a week.

Scholarly research is a major focus in the second year of the fellowship. Faculty mentors are selected by the fellows to work with them on clinical and laboratory projects and to provide training and guidance during the course of the study. The project gives the fellows in depth knowledge in specific areas of infectious diseases which hopefully will yield worthwhile findings for presentation and publication. A specific three month block is dedicated for fellows to pursue focused areas in-depth.

A third year of fellowship is encouraged but not required. A number of independently funded faculty members with interest in the areas of HIV, immunology, international health, sepsis, nosocomial infections, and tuberculosis are available to work on-on-one with fellows in developing specific research projects.

Conferences are scheduled throughout the week. They include a weekly infectious disease conference on Wednesday mornings in which both fellows and faculty present cases and research. The journal club meets monthly. A case conference held every other week at Rhode Island Hospital reviews interesting and problematic issues. The fellows are provided time and funding to attend the SHEA/CDC Course in Hospital Epidemiology. Weekly grand rounds and Morbidity and Mortality conferences are excellent and fellows are encouraged to attend. An HIV didactic lecture series is held weekly through the year. Additional lectures in less commonly encountered infectious diseases are given during the two year fellowship period.

Teaching infectious diseases to interns, residents and medical students is an important facet of the fellows' training and this involves informal contact on the wards and formal lectures to residents and medical students during the infectious disease elective. Call schedule for fellows is one out of every four night and one out of every fourth weekend. Night call is taken by long range pager or from home and mainly involves handling problems by telephone although fellows may need to go to the hospital for emergency consultation such as a patient being admitted with acute meningitis.

Benefits to fellows include four weeks of vacation, Disability Insurance, Life Insurance and Dental Insurance. Several health insurance plans for individuals, two-person and family memberships are available. The institutionally required contribution to selected benefits plans are payroll deducted. Details can be obtained through the Rhode Island Hospital Human Resources Department. For individuals with training in other areas such as, OB/GYN, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Psychology, advanced training is available in the area of HIV/AIDS. We welcome any inquiries.

Application Process

Fellowship applications are being accepted through the ERAS system at www.aamc.org/eras. For difficulties or to request additional information please contact Sue Devine, sdevine@lifespan.org.