Program Curriculum
Our clinical curriculum, based on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Infectious Diseases certification exam blueprint is designed to augment hands-on supervised patient experiences in the management of general adult infectious diseases, transplant infectious diseases, HIV, viral hepatitis, microbiology, virology, surgical infections, hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship, outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy, tropical and emerging infections, drug resistant organisms, infectious diseases epidemiology and public health and travel medicine with lectures and case reviews by faculty. Educational objectives and expectations for each rotation are reinforced with faculty and fellows each rotation.
Clinical Rotations
Year-by-Year Schedule
First Year
The first year of training is concentrated on core clinical rotations and an introduction to the laboratory and infection prevention. Approximately seven months are spent on the consultation service, 2 weeks in bone marrow transplant, 2 weeks in solid organ transplant, 4 weeks in infection prevention, 4 weeks in the microbiology laboratory, 4 weeks in the outpatient ambulatory general infectious diseases clinic, 2 weeks in the outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) and antibacterial stewardship program, and 6 weeks dedicated in planning and exploring opportunities for research project suited to each fellow’s career path, with the guidance of senior research faculty and each Fellow’s chosen research mentor(s). Fellows also complete on-line training relevant to the conduct of clinical research. Fellows spend one half-day per week in the continuity HIV clinic. During the first year, each fellow is given both ongoing mentoring and career development guidance, and will have formal meetings with senior faculty regarding career development and planning their quality improvement and research/scholarly activities.
Second Year
During the second year, the emphasis is on building each Fellow’s clinical growth and focus and on conducting their respective research and quality improvement projects, in conjunction with each Fellow’s chosen mentors. Approximately five months are spent on the inpatient consult service, four months conducting research and quality improvement projects and two months on the transplant service. Fellows continue to spend one half-day per week in their continuity HIV clinics. Other responsibilities of the second year fellows include didactic teaching for the Internal Medicine Residents at core conferences. During the second year, each fellow is given ongoing mentoring and career development guidance, formal meetings with senior faculty regarding career development and implementation, and will continue to implement with completion of their quality improvement and research/scholarly activities with overall goal of presentation at professional conference and/or publication.
Learning Environments
HIV/AIDS Clinic: Each fellow spends one half-day session per week in the continuity HIV clinic. Continuity fellow clinics are based at the Institute for Advance Medicine’s Morningside Clinic at Harlem Health Center-Jack Fund Clinic, Peter Krueger Clinic (Downtown), and Samuels Clinic at Mount Sinai West. Under the direction of several dedicated HIV ID-trained faculty, each fellow has primary responsibility for the care of a panel of patients with HIV. The principles of managing antiretroviral therapy and the prophylaxis and treatment of opportunistic infections are stressed, along with the diagnosis and management of key HIV related comorbidities, including the treatment of viral hepatitis. Mount Sinai-Union Square General Infectious Diseases Clinic: Ambulatory ID rotations at MDUS include general medical and surgical outpatients and patients with a range of immunocompromising conditions (patients living with HIV) from throughout the New York City area. Unique aspects include gaining expertise in the acute and longitudinal care of patients with infectious diseases with exposure to patients with complex general infectious diseases outpatient consultation including chronic viral hepatitis and post-discharge follow-up for patients on outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT). This clinic also cares for an increasing number of patients referred for diagnosis, management, and prevention of general and tropical infectious diseases, including travelers.
Wellness
We believe that our fellowship provides a unique combination of a rigorous training program lead by a group of Faculty who create a supportive and open atmosphere. Don't get us wrong, we work hard. But while we emphasize the educational experience, we are committed to achieving a healthy work-life balance. Our wellness program, led by Dr. Raymonde Jean, Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary/Critical Care), focuses on stress reduction, regular check-ins, and empowering our fellows to remove barriers to maintaining well-being and a healthy/balanced lifestyle and sessions are integrated into our Tuesday Scholarly Half-Day/Academic Half-Day.
Conferences and Didactic Sessions
Weekly Scholarly Day/Academic Half-Day
Tuesday afternoon (protected educational time after weekly HIV continuity clinic)
Weekly ID fellows attend Tuesday scholarly day/academic half-day that consists of core lecture series, Mandell Club, MSHS Case Conference, and Wellness sessions.
Core Lecture Series: The faculty across each site presents an ongoing series of didactic lectures on core topics in Infectious Diseases based on the ABIM Infectious Diseases certification exam blueprint.
Fellows Case Conference: This is a weekly combined conference telecast across the Mount Sinai Health System at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. On a rotating basis, adult and pediatric infectious disease fellows throughout the Mount Sinai Health System present interesting cases from the consult services or ambulatory settings. The case presentations are complemented by a review of the relevant medical literature. Divisional Quality Improvement (QI) conference is incorporated into the weekly case conference schedule.
Mandell Club: This is a case-based series held as formal preparation for the ID Boards that is led by Dr. Stanley Yancovitz, Associate Program Director, Fellowship Site Director at Mount Sinai-Union Square, and recipient of a multitude of teaching awards including most recently the Institute for Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Master Clinician Award in 2019. Dr. Yancovitz leads each session during academic half-day with a group review of a chapter or section in a standard ID text, as formalized substantial preparation for the Board examination.
HIV Lecture Series
Monday 12 pm - 1 pm
Fellows are encouraged to attend the twice monthly lectures sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Medicine and the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute’s Clinical Education Initiative (CEI) geared toward the development of state of the art skills in HIV care and prevention.
Clinical Infectious Disease Conference
Thursday 8 am - 9 am
All fellows are expected to attend the weekly Clinical Infectious Disease Conferences which are held separately on weekly basis at Mount Sinai Morningside/Mount Sinai West (combined conference, Thursdays at 8 am - 9 am). The fellows present most interesting and challenging cases seen on consult service followed by a discussion on management and existing literature. This is a relatively informal discussion of active cases designed primarily to expose the division at large to clinical cases and for the current inpatient teams to garner advice on active cases from the rest of the faculty.
Journal Club
Monthly, Wednesday 5 pm - 6 pm
Journal Club is a monthly combined conference telecast across the ID training sites at Mount Sinai Health System at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Each month, the conference is led by a fellow and faculty member from one of the ID fellowships of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All fellows attend and all faculty are invited to attend this conference. On a rotating basis, one fellow from each program is responsible for picking 1-2 appropriate articles which are critically analyzed. The critical appraisal includes each fellow discussing the content of the article, including the study design, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study. Research concepts (study design, significant values, clinical and public health significance, etc.) are stressed in this forum.
