MD Fellowship Program in Clinical Infectious Diseases

University of Virginia Health System
Revised, November 2006
PROGRAM OVERVIEW:

The Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Virginia is a three-year program with the aim of producing world class physicians dedicated to a career in academic infectious diseases. It provides rigorous training and supervised experience with an internationally recognized faculty of broad clinical and research expertise at a level suitable for the concurrent development of outstanding clinical practice and research skills.

Candidates from outstanding clinical residency training programs throughout the country and the world enter the program every year with a variety of research skills and backgrounds. Their training consists of two broad areas: clinical training in the care of ambulatory and hospitalized patients with infectious diseases; and research training focusing on the development of skills necessary to become a successful independent investigator. The first year of the program is devoted to the development of research skills and the initiation of independent projects that will lead ultimately to success in all areas of research, including independent research design and conduct, publication, and procurement of independent funding. Devotion of the entire first year to research, with no inpatient or outpatient clinical responsibilities for trainees, allows for more rapid development of research skills and independent research programs leading to more productive conduct of research during the clinical years of training, and a higher level of emphasis on successful research scholarship during and following the training period. Subsequently, inpatient and outpatient rotations are split between the second and third years of training, with continued emphasis on the parallel development of outstanding research skills and independent accomplishment.