Rotations

Our two-year clinical track is principally organized around inpatient consultation rotations and a weekly outpatient clinic. There are four separate ID consult services spread across our two clinical campuses: General ID (two at the University/North Pavilion campus, the other at the Memorial campus) and Transplant ID. Clinical rotations occur at three locations: The University campus, the North Pavilion campus (which is adjacent to the University main campus), and the Memorial campus, each reflecting different services provided within those facilities.

Service time is tailored to individual needs, but in general, first-year fellows have approximately 33 weeks of service time, while second-year fellows have approximately 28 weeks of service time.

Inpatient Consultation Rotations

University General ID Service (I)

This high-volume service at the University campus, a Level 1 trauma and academic referral center for central Massachusetts, northern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire/Vermont, manages complex multidisciplinary cases. In addition to general medical and surgical consults, the General ID service commonly provides consultation to patients with complex orthopedic issues, as well as those on the neurologic or psychiatric inpatient services. The University campus has six intensive care units, and the General ID service staff those from the general, neurosurgical, and cardiothoracic surgical ICUs, in addition to the coronary care unit. This is often our busiest service, with a census between 15 and 25, and approximately 5 new consults per day on average.

University General ID Service (II)

The newest addition to UMass Memorial Medical Center’s University Campus is the 72-bed North Pavilion, which is adjacent to the main University campus. Fellows rotating on the North Pavilion service will encounter musculoskeletal infections and other general infectious disease cases within this new unit, which typically has a focused census of around 5 patients and averages 1 new consult per day. Complementing this experience, fellows will also manage a broader range of cases at the University Campus, including patients in two medical ICUs, inpatients with HIV requiring admission, and patients with solid-organ malignancies. This structure balances the opportunity to manage both lower-acuity general ID cases in the North Pavilion and higher-acuity, more complex cases across the University Campus, contributing to a total service census of approximately 15 patients and 3-5 new consults daily.

Transplant Infectious Diseases, University Campus

The Transplant ID service at the University campus delivers in-depth training across the spectrum of transplant infectious disease within a collaborative multidisciplinary setting. Leveraging UMass's prominent position as one of New England's two largest liver transplant programs, fellows gain extensive experience consulting on liver, kidney, and bone marrow transplant recipients, as well as patients with hematologic malignancies. The service actively manages a census exceeding 20 patients and addresses an average of 3-4 new consults daily.

Memorial General ID Service

Serving the medium-to-high acuity Memorial campus, which includes two Intensive Care Units and the Department of OB/GYN, the Memorial General ID Service provides dedicated infectious disease consultation. The team typically manages 15-20 patients and responds to approximately 4-7 new consult requests per day.

Outpatient Clinics

The Memorial campus hosts our Outpatient ID clinic, where fellows benefit from a weekly continuity clinic alongside a dedicated preceptor who serves as their clinical mentor throughout their fellowship. This clinic introduces varied experiences with infectious disease among wide patient populations, including over 600 individuals with HIV and a significant number requiring outpatient antimicrobial therapy. Fellows also gain experience managing a large number of referrals for conditions such as recurrent infections, FUO, non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection, musculoskeletal infection, sexually transmitted infections, PrEP/PEP, and Lyme disease. Elective opportunities are available in specialized faculty-run clinics, including our robust TB clinic (seeing approximately 800 cases annually, with around 50 active TB cases), travel clinic, and viral hepatitis clinic.

Non-Clinical Rotations

In addition to direct clinical care, our fellows receive training in infection prevention and control, antimicrobial stewardship, and laboratory microbiology rotation.

Electives and Research

Fellows have the flexibility to customize their infectious disease training through a range of clinical electives. Past fellows have pursued rotations in Pediatric ID, collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and gained specialized clinical experience in fields closely related to ID, including wound care, dermatology, and hematology. Fellows are expected to work on a research or quality improvement project during the course of their training, with the goal of dissemination in a scholarly forum (poster, oral presentation, or publication). Our experienced faculty are dedicated to mentoring these projects and supporting fellows in their scholarly endeavors.

The “Standard” Day

Our program prioritizes work-life balance for fellows in a demanding training environment. During inpatient consult rotations, a typical day begins between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. with morning rounds and new consults, followed by case discussions with attendings and communication of recommendations to primary teams. Education is integrated into the week, with opportunities like the internal medicine noon conference on Thursdays and dedicated fellows' lectures or ID board preparation sessions on Wednesday afternoons. We strive to balance clinical responsibilities with educational enrichment, aiming for a completion time around 5:00 p.m.

Weeknight and Weekend Call

All fellows participate in a shared call schedule. Weekend call averages one out of every seven weekends (resulting in 7 to 8 weekends per year per fellow). Weeknight call occurs roughly once a week and generally involve occasional evening phone calls, with overnight calls being an infrequent occurrence. For weekend coverage, fellows are responsible for the University campus, while the Memorial campus is covered by dedicated faculty.

Education Conferences

Chief’s Round (weekly, Mondays, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.): Led weekly by the Chief of the Infectious Diseases division or a senior faculty member, this session involves the presentation of compelling or complex patient cases from the weekend's on-call service by the responsible fellow. A senior fellow facilitates the case discussion, exploring diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Journal Club (every other month, Mondays, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.): Held every other month, this session focuses on the critical analysis of recent and impactful scientific literature in infectious diseases. Fellows and faculty advisors present articles, leading to in-depth discussions among ID fellows and faculty.

Fellows Research Work-In-Progress (every other month, Mondays, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.): This session provides as a platform for ID fellows to present their ongoing research projects and share their progress. It allows fellows to receive feedback from faculty on their study design, data analysis, and progress.

Interhospital Case Conference (monthly, Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.): This monthly conference fosters collaboration between the Infectious Disease Divisions of UMass Chan Medical School, UMass-Baystate Medical Center, and Saint Vincent Hospital. Challenging and diverse infectious disease cases are presented by each institution on a rotating basis, followed by comprehensive discussions involving faculty from all participating sites, focusing on diagnostic and management dilemmas.

HIV Core Lecture Series (12-week series on Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.): A structured series of lectures focused specifically on HIV and its related aspects. Over the 12-week course, it will cover various aspects of HIV, including virology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and initial evaluation, opportunistic infections, HIV transmission/prevention, the principles of antiviral therapy and HIV drug resistance.

ID Board Preparation Series (alternating Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.): This session is designed to help ID fellows prepare for their board certification examination in infectious diseases. It will cover key ID topics, review important concepts and practice questions and test-taking strategies for the ID Board.

Department of Medicine Grand Rounds (weekly, Thursdays, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.): Medical Grand Rounds offers a broader educational conference that covers a wide range of topics within internal medicine. Conferences are recorded and archived.

ID Core Lecture Series (weekly, Fridays, 8:00 – 9:00 a.m.): This foundational weekly lecture series systematically covers a wide spectrum of infectious disease topics across a 2-year curriculum. The lectures are presented by experts in the field, including faculty from the Division of Infectious Diseases and invited specialists from within and beyond our institution.

ID Case Conferences (weekly, Fridays, 8:00 – 9:00 a.m.): The key education experience for learners is ID case conferences that occur every Friday morning. It is centered around the discussion of real patient cases with infectious disease challenges, diagnostic process, clinical reasoning, treatment strategies, and management decisions. It is a great way to interact with and learn from experienced clinicians.