Infectious disease fellowship

The academic teaching service takes place at either Butterworth or Blodgett Hospital. The team consists of one ID faculty, one fellow, one or two residents and one student. Fellows perform consultation/follow ups and staff with the attending at rounds. While on the academic service, fellows will encounter general ID cases that represent the bread and butter of infectious diseases with great exposure to more complex clinical scenarios such as cardiovascular infections, CNS infections, nosocomial infections, MDROs, fungal infections among others. While at Blodgett hospital, a wide variety of bone and joint infections will be encountered as well.

The Bone and Joint Infection Service is the teaching service held at Spectrum Health Blodgett hospital, with a focus on orthopedic infections.

The Solid Organ Transplant Infectious Disease rotation takes place at Butterworth hospital and encompasses evaluating solid-organ transplant recipients and pre-transplant candidates, mainly thoracic solid organ transplant recipients (heart, lung), in addition to any other type of organ transplant recipient that could have been hospitalized at our medical center. Our patient population includes patients who received their organs at our center or at different local, national or international centers and are currently seeking local care. The fellow will have the opportunity to attend multispecialty transplant meetings and complete the SOT curriculum. Rotation includes management of infections related to left ventricular assist devices (LVAD).

The Bone Marrow Transplant rotation will consist of performing inpatient infectious disease consultations on patients that have undergone recent or past autologous/ allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Fellows will perform pre-HSCT infectious disease evaluations on stem cell transplant candidates. While rotating on the BMT service, fellows will attend the weekly bone marrow transplant multi-disciplinary meetings. Additionally, fellows will see infectious complicated patients with hematologic malignancies (acute & chronic leukemia, lymphomas & multiple myeloma) and CAR T-cell therapy.

The antimicrobial stewardship rotation will be in accordance with the IDSA ID Fellowship ASP curriculum found on the IDSA website and reviewing appropriateness of inpatient antimicrobial use at Spectrum Health hospitals, including regional hospitals outside of the main campus in Grand Rapids. Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in monthly meetings of the Antimicrobial Pharmacy and Therapeutics subcommittee.

The clinical microbiology rotation will allow the fellow to develop a better understanding of the clinical microbiology laboratory methods and operations, and how to use it effectively to establish etiological diagnosis of infectious diseases, select the most effective antimicrobial therapy, and improve delivery of care within the health system.

The Infection Control and Prevention rotation will provide the infectious disease fellow exposure to the strategies and techniques utilized by the Infection Control and Prevention department. The following topics are covered during this rotation: principles and practices of infection control, principals of patient isolation, outbreak investigation, use of statistics in determining hospital outbreaks, healthcare policy and governmental regulations for reporting and documentation of hospital-acquired infections and understanding financial benefits of presenting hospital-acquired infections.

During the second year, the fellows rotate in Hepatology clinic and complete the University of Minnesota Travel and Tropical Medicine course for the Infectious Disease Specialist as part of global health.

The fellows spend one half day every other week at the HIV clinic at Trinity Health Infectious Disease Office. The HIV medicine clinic is one of the primary ambulatory experiences for the training program. The HIV/AIDS McAuley Program is a specialty clinic at Trinity Health. It is the largest HIV clinic in West Michigan and second largest HIV clinic in Michigan serving nearly 1,300 patients living with HIV. Care for patients within the clinic is with a multidisciplinary team approach with seven HIV providers (four ID physicians, two PA’s and one NP), clinical pharmacist, nurses, medical case managers and a clinical dietitian.

Throughout this training opportunity fellows will experience various treatment modalities and stages in HIV management from the newly diagnosed patient to the treatment-experienced patient. This clinic allows the fellow to work in a multidisciplinary team and to apply advanced skills in HIV management.

Fellows spend one half day every other week at the Spectrum Health Infectious Disease Continuity clinic seeing new patients and hospital follow-ups. Spectrum Health is the largest outpatient Infectious Disease office in West Michigan caring for a diverse variety of infections, from acute hospital follow-ups to chronic infectious diseases, endemic fungal infections, NTM infections, bone and joint infections, and endocarditis follow-ups, among others.

During the first year of fellowship, fellows rotate at the Kent County Health Department and spend time in the TB and STI clinic as part of the Public health rotation. As part of this rotation, fellows will also attend Allergy/Immunology and Wound care.

Fellows can elect to spend additional time on one of the above rotations, any other on-site rotation or request an away rotation.

This conference is designed to brainstorm research and/or program improvement projects and monitoring the progress of projects.

Fellows meet with the program director and discuss complicated cases, root cause analysis of readmission, review goals and objectives for upcoming rotations.

This is a clinical conference during which faculty, fellows, residents and students present and discuss interesting clinical cases.

This conference involves several teaching hospitals in the greater Grand Rapids area. The host hospital presents a series of unknown cases to guest infectious disease attendings, fellows and residents. Only the hosting hospital is required to prepare and present cases.

Presented by fellows or faculty who are expected to discuss their article critically, and to provide data interpretation and conclusions.

The Infectious Disease, Pharmacy and Microbiology team meet and discuss cases presented by fellows.

• 1st Friday: Mandell’s Book Club

• 2nd Friday: HIV Conference

• 3rd Friday: Guidelines Review

• 4th Friday: Board Review

Food: Release your inner foodie exploring one of the top food cities in the US.

Entertainment: From zoos and museums to festivals and art, there is a new experience around every corner.

Shopping: West Michigan has a diverse assortment of shops for everyone.

Outdoors: With trails, lakes and more, there is so much of West Michigan to explore.

Sustainability: Located along the shore of Lake Michigan, West Michigan has many initiatives to protect our natural resources.

Identities matter and so do you! Our residency and fellowship programs offer social activities, wellness programs and a diversity council to foster respect, personal health and community.

• LBGTQIA+
• Safe Spaces
• Inclusion Resource Groups
• Grand Rapids, an inclusive community