The Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program assumes that fellows will spend the majority of their off-service months engaged in an independent, supervised research project. However, the program does encourage participation in clinical electives that allow fellows to broaden their training in areas of particular interest.
Clinical electives
- Cardiovascular critical care: This rotation provides fellows the opportunity to participate in the care of patients with pulmonary artery catheters, intra-aortic balloon pumps, ventricular-assist devices, and sometimes patients undergoing ECMO.
- Chest radiology: An elective with our chest radiologists will have an emphasis on interpretation of both plain film imaging and computed tomography of the thorax.
- Echocardiography: Point-of-care ultrasound, including cardiac ultrasound, plays an increasing role in the care of critically ill patients. Although there is a didactic series dedicated to echocardiography and abundant opportunities for “hands on” experience during the ICU rotations, many fellows choose to do 1 or more elective months in the echocardiography lab, where they gain additional experience interpreting echocardiograms under the supervision of an attending cardiologist.
- Interventional radiology: Time spent with the interventional radiology service will provide an opportunity to gain additional experience performing tube thoracostomy, as well as other drainage procedures, including placement of tunneled pleural catheters.
- Palliative care: The palliative care elective provides fellows with additional experience in serious illness conversations as well as symptom management in patients with advanced lung disease.