Training requirements for board eligibility in Infectious Diseases include a 12 month core clinical curriculum which includes inpatient consults, continuity clinic (with at least 20 HIV patients), clinical microbiology, hospital epidemiology, STD training, and conferences.
A continuity clinic is maintained for a total of 24 months.
During the first year, fellows spend 5 months at Bellevue Hospital, and 3 months at the NYU Langone Medical Center, and 1 month at the VA Hospital. The first year also includes 1 month at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1 month of clinical microbiology, and 4 weeks of vacation.
An intensive two month didactic curriculum begins in July, to provide first-year fellows with the knowledge needed to be expert consultants. Additional conferences continue during the remainder of the academic year.
Bellevue Hospital Center (5 months)
Bellevue Hospital Center, which first opened in 1736, is the primary teaching facility of the New York University School of Medicine. The patient population served by Bellevue Hospital Center is diverse, and includes residents of downtown Manhattan, recent immigrants, students, and patients referred from the other New York City public hospitals. It includes an isolation unit for the care of people with highly contagious infectious diseases and viral hemorrhagic fevers, and a dedicated TB ward.
Bellevue includes a 20 bed virology (HIV/AIDS) inpatient serviceand an NIH-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.
Bellevue is also the site of a busy Virology (HIV) outpatient clinic, where some of the fellows have their continuity clinic; there is a weekly HIV clinic conference, for discussion of challenging diagnostic and management problems.
In 2008, the Division of Infectious Diseases opened an outpatient clinic at Bellevue for patients with acute and chronic infectious diseases other than HIV. This clinic serves a large population of people with chronic viral hepatitis, provides post-discharge follow up for patients with infectious diseases, and cares for an increasing number of patients referred for diagnosis and management of infectious diseases, including travellers and immigrants.
NYU Langone Medical Center
The NYU Langone Medical Center (Tisch Hospital), formerly New York University Hospital, is an acute-care general and referral hospital of 726 beds that annually admits approximately 25,000 patients. During the rotations at the NYU Langone Medical Center, fellows perform infectious diseases consultations on medical and surgical patients, including recent travellers, people with HIV, and patients treated with targeted immunotherapies, with the supervision of full time infectious diseases clinicians. In addition, fellows spend one month on the Transplant Infectious Diseases service, led by Dr. Roger Wetherbee, and one month on a Hospital Epidemiology rotation, led by Dr. Michael Phillips.
Veteran's Administration Hospital
The New York Campus of the Veterans Administration New York Harbor Healthcare System (VA), formerly the New York (Manhattan) Veterans Administration Medical Center, is a 210-bed acute care facility. Located on the same campus as Bellevue and the NYU Langone Medical Center, the Infectious Diseases Division staff and fellows provide primary care for the largest cohort of HIV-infected patients within the nationwide VA system.
The inpatient consultation service at the VA provides fellows with a broad range of experience in evaluation and management of acute infectious diseases, supported by the full-time clinical faculty. As the New York VA also serves as a referral center for the New York metropolitan area VA system in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery and neurosurgery, fellows gain particular experience in managing infections associated with such patients.
Fellows spend one clinic session weekly at the VA, where they are supported by a staff of pharmacists, social workers and a nurse case manager.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
NYU fellows spend one month on the Infectious Diseases Service at MSKCC, where they obtain intensive experience in the diagnosis and management of infections in immunocompromised patients with cancer and hematologic diseases, including hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients. This rotation is part of a fellowship exchange, in which MSKCC fellows rotate to the infectious diseases consult service at Bellevue while NYU fellows are at MSKCC.
Clinical Microbiology
All infectious disease fellows have a one-month rotation in the diagnostic microbiology laboratories at Bellevue and at the NYU Langone Medical Center. These laboratories have complementary strengths, and fellows gain direct experience with diagnostic bacteriology, mycology, mycobacteriology, parasitology, and virology. In addition, they gain facility with antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and with molecular diagnostic assays.
