Infectious Disease Greenville - Curriculum

Antimicrobial stewardship continues to grow as a recognized and required need of hospitals and health systems. Fellows will be active members of the antimicrobial stewardship committee.  In addition to attending monthly meetings, they will also have a role in crafting and presenting antimicrobial stewardship initiatives.  By the completion of the program, each fellow will be knowledgeable of the principles and strategies of antimicrobial stewardship programs and be prepared to lead a successful hospital antimicrobial stewardship committee.

The busy outpatient ID office experience covers the breadth of infectious disease practice with a mix of hospital follow-up and community referrals. Fellows will develop first-hand experience in the natural history of treated and untreated infections as well as the expertise necessary to assess and respond to treatment complications, treatment failures, the long-term monitoring of patients receiving antibiotics, and infection resolution and risk of recurrence.

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HIV care is provided at New Horizon Family Health Services. This is a dedicated HIV clinic in which fellows assess newly diagnosed patients, select and initiate antiretroviral therapy, treat and prevent opportunistic infections and provide periodic monitoring of HIV treatment response.

To meet the growing demand for infectious disease physicians in rural settings, we offer telehealth services in 7 rural and specialty hospitals within the upstate of South Carolina. Fellows will participate in telehealth consultation and gain experience in how this burgeoning technology can be incorporated to expand expert patient care delivery within their careers.

Fellows complete a 4-week microbiology laboratory curriculum during their first year while working alongside the microbiology laboratory director and professional microbiology lab technicians. The purpose is to develop technical expertise in the use of laboratory resources, processes and work flow, diagnostic interpretation and limitations, and the efficient reporting of results.  The curriculum will cover clinical bacteriology including higher order and mycobacteria, mycology, parasitology and virology.

Fellows will have mentorship and protected time to design and complete clinical research that is relevant to infectious diseases. Within 3 months of the start of fellowship each fellow will formulate a research proposal and will have 4 months during the first year and up to 4 months during the second year to complete the project with the goal of presentation at a research conference or publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Each fellow will also identify and complete a quality improvement project within the context of infectious disease clinical practice or hospital infection control.

During outpatient and elective blocks, fellows will also gain experience with the goal of proficiency in subspecialty clinic environments dedicated to wound care and travel medicine

In addition to daily inpatient interactions with internal medicine and family medicine residents and medical students, fellows will also get a formal exposure to medical education. Fellows get teaching responsibilities within the internal medicine residency ID curriculum.  Furthermore, second year fellows gain experience in medical school education, and give two lectures to second year medical students within the medical school microbiology course.