The Infectious Diseases Fellowship is an integrated, two -year program that combines broad and intensive training in clinical infectious diseases with protected time to pursue basic or clinical research after the first year.  A third research year is offered to fellows engaged in funded, productive research projects in infectious diseases.

First Year of Fellowship

The first year of fellowship is devoted to clinical care and infectious disease consultation on inpatient services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the St. Louis Veterans Administration Medical Center (John Cochran).  Under the supervision and mentorship of an attending physician, fellows will gain practical and wide-ranging experience in managing infectious diseases in a large urban academic medical center.  These busy general services provide more than 2,000 inpatient consultations annually.  A dedicated, transplant infectious diseases consult service follows complex and challenging infections in both solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant populations.  A bone and joint consult service provides concentrated exposure to orthopedic infections.

The typical first year will consist of the following: (click links below for curriculum)

General infectious diseases consult service (Barnes Jewish Hospital) - 20 weeks

Transplant infectious diseases consult service (Barnes-Jewish Hospital) - 10 weeks

Infectious diseases consult service (St. Louis VAMC) - 10 weeks

Clinical Microbiology Laboratory (Barnes-Jewish Hospital) - 2 weeks

Elective - 7 weeks

Vacation - 3 weeks

Elective time during the first year affords ample opportunity to identify and meet with potential faculty mentors as fellows make plans to pursue research in later years. A rotation on the bone & joint infections consult service (curriculum) may be completed during this time, or deferred to the second year.

Finally, fellows will provide outpatient HIV primary care and infectious disease consultation one half-day a week at the Washington University Infectious Diseases Clinic year round (Ambulatory curriculum). An HIV-HCV co-infection clinic experience is available for fellows with a particular interest in the care of patients with HCV. Additional training experiences are also available at the St. Louis County Department of Health Sexually Transmitted Diseases and tuberculosis Clinics.

Second and Third Year of Fellowship

The second and third years of fellowship allow protected time to pursue research.  The Division holds an NIH Training Grant, now in its 26th continuous year of funding.  More than 30 full-time faculty in the basic and clinical sciences participate in the training of infectious diseases fellows.  A great deal of flexibility is accorded fellows in their choice of research mentors.  A faculty advisory committee formed for each fellow will assure that each fellow’s training goals are achieved.  Opportunities to participate in formal didactic research training are available to interested fellows through the Clinical Research Training Center at Washington University School of Medicine.

In addition to research, fellows may also seek additional electives in bone and joint infections (particularly if they have not completed a rotation on this service during the first year) and pediatric infectious diseases (St. Louis Children’s Hospital).  Previous fellows have arranged electives in wound care, hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, hepatitis, and international medicine.  Fellows are welcome to participate in division and hospital committees focusing on infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship, and patient safety.

Fellows will continue to attend clinic one half-day per week to maintain clinical skills and satisfy ABIM requirements for board certification in infectious diseases.

For those pursuing the two-year clinician track, the second year will consist of additional exposure to outpatient HIV and general infectious diseases as well as experiences on the inpatient consultation services that are tailored to the fellow’s interests.

For those pursuing research, multiple opportunities for funding additional training in research exist, including the the Infectious Disease Training Grant, as well as several KL2 and other training programs run through the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences.  Our fellows have been highly successful in obtaining grant funding through NIH K08 and K23 mechanisms, as well as funding through private organizations, including the Doris Duke Foundation, Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation, HIVMA, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.