Rheumatology Fellowship Curriculum

First Year

In the 1st year, the fellow will complete a total of 8 months on the inpatient consultation service, which covers UMMC and the BVAMC.

Clinical faculty serve as the supervising attending physician and will see and discuss the case after the fellow performs the initial consultative evaluation.

As rheumatology is a subspecialty practiced primarily in the outpatient setting, the fellow will attend continuity clinics at the University Health Center (UHC) and BVAMC on a weekly basis. Each fellow is assigned a panel of patients and will take primary responsibility for their care over the duration of their fellowship. Additional outpatient experiences include a bi-weekly Pediatric Rheumatology clinic, once-monthly Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Clinic, and a monthly VA Arthritis clinic.

The fellow will gain competence in performing and interpreting tests and procedures involved in the evaluation of patients with rheumatic diseases, including arthrocentesis, joint and soft tissue injection, synovial fluid analysis, musculoskeletal imaging (bone and joint radiographs), bone densitometry, electromyography and nerve conduction tests, and serologic testing. A musculoskeletal ultrasound experience is available. The fellow participates in all divisional conference activities (see below under “Both Years”).

Second Year

The 2nd year fellow completes a total of 4 months of inpatient consultation, while continuing to see patients in their weekly UHC and BVAMC continuity clinics. The remaining time is dedicated to clinical electives and the pursuit of scholarly activity. Additionally, 2nd year fellows are responsible for the majority of medical student and house staff training on rheumatology electives. In addition to continuity clinics, 2nd year fellows will work directly with the fellowship program director in a bi-weekly clinic at the faculty practice at UMROI as well as a bi-weekly Lupus Clinic at UHC with Dr. Violeta Rus.

The 2nd year fellow is expected to pursue scholarly activities. These may include participation in an ongoing faculty clinical or basic research project, a fellow-led novel research project, a quality-improvement project, book chapter, or peer-edited manuscript. All scholarly activity is directly supervised by a faculty mentor. The fellow also participates in all divisional conference activities (see below under “Both Years”)

Both Years

Rheumatology faculty, fellows, and other rotating trainees meet one morning each week for divisional didactics. These educational conferences may include rheumatology grand rounds, clinical & basic science journal club, core clinical conference, CARE question board review, and a variety of lectures from specialists involved in multi-disciplinary rheumatologic care. Fellows also attend a monthly musculoskeletal radiology conference.

Fellows typically attend at least 2 conferences a year. Some of the conference options include the First Year Fellows Conference in Philadelphia, PA, the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting (ACR), the NYU Update in Advanced Rheumatology, and the State of the Art Clinical Symposium (ACR-SOTA). The division participates in the yearly ACR sponsored In Training Exam (ITE).