Infectious Diseases Fellowship

You will become a member of the next generation of academic physicians who perform innovative research, provide outstanding patient care and train future leaders in the field. Our atmosphere of intellectual curiosity and discovery within our division provides faculty, fellows, students and staff the opportunities to maximize potential while aiding the health of children on a local, regional, national and global scale.

Our curriculum has been structured to allow flexibility in training to maximize your future success by providing resources, mentorship, research and educational opportunities to prepare you to be an academic clinician leader.

You will spend three years acquiring and enhancing the skills necessary to care for complex, critically ill children of all ages and sizes.

We expect that during your period of training, you will acquire knowledge and apply it with incremental responsibility:

• Year 1: Understanding microbiology, antimicrobial use and its application to pediatric infectious diseases.
• Year 2: Making progress toward independent practice.
• Year 3: Competent to practice independently.

Our program will provide you with a guide to formatting individual learning plans per academic year. As part of this individualized learning plan, you will be trained in two main areas:

1. Clinical training: General infectious diseases, infectious diseases in the immunocompromised host (cancer, transplantation, HIV, immunodeficiency), infectious diseases in critical patients (pediatric intensive care and neonatal intensive care). This includes elective rotations in expanded clinical, public health and sexually transmitted diseases, quality improvement with a focus on antibiotic stewardship/infection control, and global health.
2. Research/Academic: You may choose to train in basic science/translational research or clinical/epidemiology research. By your third year of training, you will be expected to have submitted a K-level award application and will present their research at a regional, national or international meeting. You will learn how to present a scientific project in poster or oral format.

Educational features of our training program include:

• Orientation session for incoming fellows (July or when beginning if off-cycle)
• Didactic infectious diseases conferences (weekly during the academic year)
• Pediatric grand rounds (monthly during the academic year)
• Pediatric ICU Morbidity, Mortality and Improvement (PICU MMI) Conference
  
• Antimicrobial stewardship rounds (quarterly during the academic year)
• Infection control conferences (quarterly during the academic year)
• Pediatric Infectious Diseases clinical conference
• Research conferences (quarterly during the academic year)
• Infectious Diseases Journal Club (monthly during the academic year)

You will learn to diagnose, manage and prevent infectious diseases in children through the following:

• Basic science research: You will conduct research on molecular mechanisms of HIV immune response and acquire knowledge on molecular biology techniques, pathogenesis of infectious diseases (including a focus on cellular and humoral immunology), and the basic techniques necessary to study pathogens. We currently have a wide range of focused research projects with an emphasis on immune responses to HIV.
• Clinical and translational research: You will participate in ongoing clinical research projects on gastroenterologic childhood infections which will acquire a knowledge of epidemiology, statistics and ethics of research on human subjects. You may be involved in intramural as well as national and international clinical projects. You will also learn how to present at regional, national and international meetings.
  

Click here to learn more about funding opportunities at UB.

You will receive direct training by our experienced faculty during inpatient and outpatient service consultations. You will familiarize yourself with phone communications with community physicians, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New York State Department of Health after phone call consult requests.

Our comprehensive fellowship training program in pediatric infectious diseases is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Please review our program requirements by the ACGME.

The postdoctoral education prerequisite is three years of general pediatric residency training in an ACGME-certified program. You should apply through ERAS and enter the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Match. Pediatric Infectious Diseases is in the Pediatric Specialties Fall Match (PSFM) and matches in December. 

In your personal statement, please include the following:

• brief description about yourself
• your interest in infectious diseases
• long-term plans and specific fellowship training goals

You must provide letters of recommendation from:

• your chair of pediatrics
• two other faculty members (preferably at least one from pediatric infectious diseases) with whom you have worked during the past two years

We select fellows with excellent residency performance records and goals consistent with those of our program.