All facilities in which our fellows train are located on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus in the Camden Yards, M & T Bank (Ravens) Stadium, Inner Harbor neighborhood of downtown Baltimore. Click for information about living in Maryland.
The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine provides a comprehensive training program that takes advantage of the growing resources of the Division as well as other Divisions of the Department of Medicine, other Departments and Schools on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus and other local institutions, including the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and the National Institutes of Health. The program is designed to provide the highest quality training in clinical pulmonary and critical care medicine and biomedical research. Fellows are taught to think critically about their patients, current medical practice, and the biomedical research literature. They are encouraged to develop and pursue clinical, translational and basic research questions. For those fellows who elect to pursue a career in clinical practice, this training provides valuable insight into evaluating the medical literature to apply to their own practice. For those fellows who elect to pursue a career in academic medicine, the training will provide a springboard for transition to the next step in their career development. For most fellows pursuing an academic career in biomedical investigation, additional training is essential. The University of Maryland has access to several valuable resources to support this transition, including K30 and K12 NIH awards, the VA career development award, a wealth of potential mentors to support individual K23 and K08 awards, and a General Clinical Research Center. The program and faculty fully support any fellow desiring an additional year of fellowship training In order to meet their academic goals.
The Program benefits from the location of the Baltimore VA Medical Center (VA), a key component of both the clinical and research training programs, on campus and directly connected via walk-bridge to the University Hospital. The Medical Intensive Care Units (MICU) at the VA and the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) are only a 3 minute walk apart.
This allows us to cover both hospitals with a single, fully integrated faculty and to have a single series of conferences. When fellows rotate between the hospitals, they do not have to leave their office and colleagues behind as occurs in institutions where the VA medical center is located a greater distance from the university. In addition, it allows our fellows to have continuity clinics at the VA without having to travel across town.
The clinical training program is a busy one with more than sufficient numbers of pulmonary and critical care procedures, a chance to take both leadership and roles in the MICUs and on the pulmonary consultation services. The fellows are exposed to specialized bronchoscopic techniques under the direction of Dr. E. James Britt, including CT fluoroscopic-guided transbronchial needle aspirates, a technique pioneered at the University of Maryland. They rotate on the lung transplant service with Dr. Aldo Iacono learning both the pre-transplant evaluation and management of lung transplant candidates with end-stage lung disease as well as the perioperative management of lung transplantation.
Fellows also participate in basic and advanced thoracic surgical techniques during a thoracic surgery rotation, during which the fellow learns to place chest tubes under optimal conditions using thoracoscopic guidance. They have the opportunity to rotate through the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, the prototype trauma hospital in the United States, which provides our fellows with a unique chance to care for trauma victims and to learn how critical care specialists in other disciplines care for patients.
The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care has developed a joint acute lung injury and sepsis center along with the faculty of Surgical and Pediatric Critical Care to further improve our teaching and research programs. This includes a joint monthly conference with faculties and trainees from all three programs and a joint clinical research program.
Training in advanced lung imaging is offered by one of the best pulmonary radiology groups in the country utilizing cutting edge clinical and research techniques. A unique elective in Pulmonary Pathology is available to our fellows at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The AFIP is located in nearby Rockville, MD and is an international referral center for pulmonary pathologic consultation. This elective is directed by Dr. Teri Frank, Chair of Mediastinal and Pulmonary Pathology, AFIP, and a volunteer faculty member in our Division.
Research training is an important component of the overall training at the University of Maryland. Fellows are allowed to select research mentors from within the Division or from outside the Division (along with a Division faculty member to insure appropriate professional development). Clinical and/or laboratory research projects are complemented by didactic coursework, including a one-week course in clinical research offered by the Department of Epidemiology; a two-week course directed by Dr. Ishwar Singh in our Division, introducing the trainee to basic laboratory techniques; lectures on ethical conduct of research; and courses offered in the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland College Park and Baltimore County campuses.
The research is monitored by an Oversight Committee to insure adequate training and progress. Fellows are expected to present their work at national meetings and to author at least one clinical or scientific paper during their fellowship. All of our current second and third year fellows have submitted scientific abstracts to the 2006 American Thoracic Society International meeting.
The research opportunities at the University of Maryland are numerous and include both basic and clinical research projects. The Department of Epidemiology has established a K30-funded clinical research training program that offers didactic courses toward a Masters in Clinical Research. The Epidemiology Department also now offers a Masters in Public Health.
For those fellows interested in pursuing a career in clinical research, this program provides the didactic training and the expertise to help support their research projects, as well as improving their competitiveness for career development grants (e.g. K23 awards). The University of Maryland has just received a highly competitive K12 award, an institutional award that is integrated with our K30 program and the General Clinical Research Center, which provides individual (K23-equivalent) career development grants to qualified trainees. Within the Division, Drs. Shanholtz, Cowan, and Silverman have active clinical research programs in the MICU, and are participants in the NIH-funded ARDSNet and now ARDSNet-2 clinical trial networks. Dr. Scharf perform clinical research in COPD as part of the NIH COPD Clinical Network
Dr. Steven Scharf has clinical programs investigating sleep disordered breathing and COPD as well as basic research in the cardiovascular effects of intermittent hypoxia.
Dr. DeLisle is funded to investigate the translation of scientific evidence into decision support at the point of service using medical informatics. Drs. Hasday, Singh, Liggett, Chen, Scharf, and Cowan have funded basic research programs and supportive laboratory teams that provide a supportive and nurturing environment to those fellows interested in pursuing basic research.
In addition, Dr. Hasday directs the University of Maryland Inflammation group, a group of appropximately 50 laboratories from across the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, University of Maryland College Park, and Johns Hopkins University with a common interest in mechanisms of inflammation. This group has a weekly seminar that has led to extensive collaborations, including co-mentoring of trainees.
Finally, the great strength of our Division is the combination of the training resources provided along with our responsiveness to the career ambitions of our trainees. We meet with each fellow on a regularly scheduled basis and Dr. Hasday (Division Head) both have open-door policies and encourage fellows to seek them out if to discuss their concerns or questions about their career paths. For those fellows wishing to pursue an academic career, the Division has access to a number of valuable resources and programs to facilitate the fellow-to-faculty transition [LINK to career development], including NIH and VA career development grants.
|
Email this Page
Print this Page © 2008 University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). All rights reserved.
UMMC is a member of the University of Maryland Medical System, 22 S. Greene
Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. 1.800.492.5538 TDD: 1.800.735.2258
Physician Referral: 1.800.373.4111
