SPECIFIC PROGRAM CONTENT

C. Teaching Experience, Didactic Education, and Conferences

1. First and second year ID fellows will be responsible for delivering a one hour lecture four days per week (usually 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday) to residents, medical students and other personnel rotating on the Rush and Cook County Infectious Diseases Consultation Services. The topics of the lectures will include those of broad general infectious disease content including etiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment. Representative topics to be covered during each one-month rotation are designed to supplement the patient-specific clinical teaching and include:

Principles of Antimicrobial Therapy (including discussion of beta-lactams, mono-bactams, aminoglycosides, quinolones, macrolides, vancomycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, miscellaneous antibacterial agents, antiviral drugs, and antiparasitic drugs)
Pneumonia and Pharyngitis
Infective Endocarditis
Fever of Undetermined Origin
HIV Infection and AIDS - Pathogenesis, Opportunistic Complications, and Therapy
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Fungal Infections
Tuberculosis
Infections in Immunocompromised Hosts; Neutropenic Fever
Meningitis and Central Nervous System Infections
Skin/Soft Tissue/Bone and Joint Infections
Infectious Diarrhea
Travel Medicine
Urinary Tract Infections

Each fellow will be responsible for the background reading and preparation of outlines or handouts to accompany each lecture. During the course of the two-year clinical training each fellow will have reviewed, prepared and delivered lectures covering each of the representative topic areas. Fellow lectures are reviewed and fellows are educated in lecture preparation, delivery, and techniques by an ID attending physician designated by the Fellow Curriculum and Evaluation Committee.

2. Two Infectious Diseases Clinical Conferences are held each week; one on Thursday morning from 9:00-11:00 a.m. (John P. Bent Conference Room, 7 Jelke, Rush) at which attendance is required for all fellows and faculty, and students, house staff, and other personnel assigned to the Rush ID consultation service, and the second is on Friday afternoon from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at the CORE Center at which attendance is required by fellows, attending faculty, students, house staff, and other personnel assigned to consultation and AIDS ward rounds at CCH. The weekly Thursday and Friday conferences comprise clinical case presentations and discussions, critical reviews of recent literature, basic science and research presentations, and clinicopathologic morbidity and mortality reviews.

The components of both conferences include : case presentations, critical reviews of the recent literature, basic science, morbidity and mortality, and review of pathology.

The Rush ID Conference is further attended by a number of ID consultants representing 20-25 Chicago area hospitals. The conference is a case-presentation and discussion-oriented conference organized and moderated each week by the ID attending physician(s) on service for either the Rush or Stroger ID Consultation Services. Four to six clinical cases are presented at each conference, selected from among those seen on the Rush or Stroger consultation or AIDS services, the Infectious Diseases Primary Service, or brought by ID attendings from outside institutions. The Stroger ID Clinical Conference includes case presentations from adult and pediatric ID consultation services and the Stroger inpatient HIV service.

At these conferences, case histories, physical examinations, and pertinent laboratory and diagnostic studies are presented by the medical student, resident, or ID fellow assigned to the case. Following the case presentation, the moderating ID attending physician selects another physician from the audience to discuss the differential diagnosis, management, and any other pertinent issues related to the case. The ID fellows may be called upon to participate in this discussion.

At the discretion of the ID attending physician organizing and moderating the conferences, ID fellows will be assigned to research and report on a specific topic or topics related to one or more cases to be presented at that week's conference. Topics will be presented by the ID fellows in a brief (5-10 minute) discussion following the presentation and discussion of the case. In addition, reviews of pertinent clinical and basic science literature and discussions related to patient morbidity and mortality are encompassed by these conferences.

Four to six times per year, outside visiting professors who specialize in or are recognized as nationally or internationally prominent experts in areas related to infectious diseases are invited to speak at the ID Clinical Conferences. Visiting professors may also be invited to make rounds with or discuss cases with ID fellows.

3. Infectious Diseases fellows will be expected to engage in reading and study of appropriate subspecialty didactic material including textbooks, journals, and research publications, among others, to supplement and expand their fund of knowledge. Suggested reading materials include:

Textbooks:

1. Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases – 5th Edition, 2000; G. Mandell, et al. (eds.); Churchill Livingston Inc., New York, NY.
   
   
2. Manual of Clinical Microbiology – 7th Edition, 1999; P.R. Murray (ed.), American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C.
   
   
3. Infectious Diseases – 2nd Edition, 1998; S. Gorbach, et al. (eds.); W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, PA.
   
   
4. Manson's Tropical Diseases – 20th Edition, 1996; G.C. Cook; W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA.
   
   
5. Sexually Transmitted Diseases – 3rd Edition, 1999; K.K. Holmes, et al. (eds.); McGraw Hill, New York, NY.

Journals:

1. New England Journal of Medicine
   
   
2. Annals of Internal Medicine
   
   
3. Journal of Infectious Diseases
   
   
4. Clinical Infectious Diseases
   
   
5. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
   
   
6. Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
   
   
7. AIDS
   
   
8. Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice

These textbooks and journals are available in the Section of Infectious Diseases Administrative Offices and/or through the medical libraries at Rush and Stroger.

4. Fellows are offered associate membership in and are encouraged to attend the Chicago Area Infectious Diseases Society meetings held approximately 6 times yearly. These meetings are attended by infectious disease specialists and fellows from the Chicago and collar county areas and consist of an informal cocktail/social hour, a dinner, and a 45 minute lecture on an infectious disease specialty topic of interest delivered by an invited speaker with specific expertise in that area of interest. The last session of the academic year is devoted to Chicago area ID fellows. Fellows are invited to submit abstracts of their research work for the preceding year. Abstracts are judged by the leadership of the Society and the three abstracts with the highest degree of merit are awarded a cash reward and are selected for presentation at the final session of the academic year. The three fellows whose work is selected are asked to attend this session and present their work in a 10 minute format with five minutes for questions and answers.

5. National/International Subspecialty Conferences: ID fellows are encouraged to attend at least one national (or international) Infectious Disease Subspecialty Conference each year. Those fellows engaged in research projects will also be encouraged to submit abstracts of their work to one or more national or international conferences. Applicable conferences include, but are not limited to, the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Annual Meeting, the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the Annual Meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the National Human Retrovirus and Related Diseases Conference, and the International AIDS Conference. Attendance at International Conferences will be at the discretion of the Program Director and generally will be determined by whether or not the fellow will be presenting his/her research and by the availability of adequate resources. Support for fellow travel, lodging, and conference fees will be provided for at least one conference per year for each fellow.

6. First and second year ID fellows will serve as adjunct members of the Infectious Disease and Sepsis Control Committee at Rush or the Infection Control Committee at CCH and may attend meetings of these committees once per month. This activity will assist in instructing ID fellows in identification and investigation of infectious disease outbreaks, inpatient infection control and isolation practices, management of infectious waste, and other issues related to infection control. As part of this responsibility, fellows will be encouraged to assist in the investigation of at least one infectious disease outbreak during their tenure as fellows, under the supervision of the hospital infection control physician and nurse epidemiologists. Fellows will be further offered the opportunity and encouraged to attend at least one ID fellow training session in hospital epidemiology and infection control practices during their 24 months of clinical training. Several such sessions are held by several organizations each year (e.g. the SHEA/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/American Hospital Association (AHA) Training Course in Hospital Epidemiology); the most appropriate session will be selected by the fellow in conjunction with the Program Director and the Fellowship Curriculum Committee.