Pediatric infectious diseases fellowship

Welcome to the Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship! Our fellowship primarily rotates at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. It is the only free-standing children’s hospital in West Michigan and has been ranked as a top hospital by U.S. News & World Report for 11 years. Our fellowship’s remaining rotations occur at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, a major tertiary and quaternary referral center for West Michigan and beyond and connected to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

The Pediatric Infectious Diseases department cares for a wide range of patients and infectious pathologies, including infections of the blood, bone, joints, lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. The department also treats international adoptees, refugees and patients living with HIV. We sponsor an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in both the inpatient and outpatient settings which helps ensure the best and most appropriate use of antibiotics for all patients within our hospital system.

We are excited to train fellows to become leaders in the specialty of pediatric infectious diseases who provide excellent clinical care and contribute to high-quality research, academics, public health and industry.

Welcome and thank you for showing interest in our program!

The Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a 3-year fellowship that accepts one to two new fellows each year. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a 242-bed, (including a 108-bed NICU, 24-bed PICU and 6-bed PCICU), freestanding tertiary care center that provides pediatric care for the entire West Michigan region. The hospital provides subspecialty care in over 50 pediatric areas, and we have fellowship programs in PICU, Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Pediatric Palliative Care, Pediatric Neurology and Pediatric Pulmonology. The hospital cares for nearly 8,000 inpatients and 95,000 ambulatory patients annually.

Our fellowship program strives to prepare our fellows for the wide breadth of opportunities in pediatric infectious diseases. We have a robust inpatient service that consults on all areas of the hospital including PICU, NICU, BMT and solid organ transplant (kidney and heart). We also have an outpatient clinic that serves the West Michigan region and parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In addition to inpatient follow up visits, we evaluate patients for fevers, immune deficiencies and recurrent or difficult to treat infections; we also manage patients with more chronic infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The Antimicrobial Stewardship Service reviews antibiotic prescribing in both the inpatient and outpatient settings and we have a dedicated pediatric infectious diseases pharmacist who is an integral part of our team. We are also responsible for clinical oversight of the Infection Prevention Program for our hospital. Our affiliation with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Van Andel Research provides access to a wide array of investigators for potential research projects.

Thank you for learning about our program and considering us for your fellowship training. If you would like additional information or have questions about our program, please feel free to reach out to our program coordinator, Kristyn McCarthy.

Sincerely,

George Fogg, MD, PhD

Program Director, Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship

Our curriculum consists of clinical rotations, fellows’ clinic, didactic lecture series, cases conferences and journal clubs.

All pediatric rotations occur at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Adult rotations occur at Butterworth Hospital, our adult counterpart located on the same campus in downtown Grand Rapids.

Rotations:

• Inpatient pediatric infectious diseases
• Microbiology
• HIV
• Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infection Prevention
• Research
• Electives: outpatient pediatric infectious diseases, pediatric immunology, adult transplant infectious disease, adult inpatient infectious disease

During the three years of training, each fellow will have approximately one-half day of clinic per week when not on an inpatient rotation. No outpatient clinic is required while on the inpatient service. During the first year, fellows see general infectious disease patients and begin seeing travel consult patients. In the second year, fellows are added to the HIV clinic, which is staffed by HIV specialists. Efforts are made to have fellows follow up on patients they consulted on in the hospital. They also have their own small panel of HIV patients that they follow throughout training.

Our didactic calendar includes monthly general infectious disease as well as immunology/HIV lectures. In addition, we have a monthly citywide infectious disease case conference alongside our adult infectious disease colleagues and adult and pediatric infectious disease pharmacists. We do a monthly virtual case conference with Michigan State University pediatric infectious diseases colleagues in Lansing and Flint. Fellows participate in presenting with residents at monthly journal clubs. Finally, there are monthly micro rounds facilitated by both adult and pediatric infectious disease fellows. Pediatric Grand Rounds for Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is every Tuesday morning and open to all fellows.

Each fellow is required to complete a research project of their interest during training. A written document of their scholarly work (whether a summary or a published manuscript) is required to be submitted to the ABP in order to be eligible to sit for the subspecialty certification exam. Spectrum Health offers a formal research training curriculum to be completed during the first year of fellowship as each fellow begins their projects. In addition, every fellow receives excellent support and guidance from the Office of Research and Education on matters such as IRB protocols, data processing, data interpretation, literature review, and more. Our division is active in clinical research, which includes quality improvement work and original projects. Fellows have the option to work alongside faculty from any Spectrum Health specialty. In addition, if a basic science project is desired, we have contacts at Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Valley State University or Michigan State University in Grand Rapids and Lansing.

Recent published topics from our faculty include:

• Contributions to multicenter guidance on management of COVID-19
• Our hospital’s experience with MIS-C
• Clostridium difficile treatment in pediatrics including fecal transplant
• Risk factors for resistant gram-negative infections in patients with congenital heart disease

Applications for the pediatric infectious diseases fellowship program are only accepted through the ERAS system. Please refer to their timeline for application windows.

Contact our program coordinator Kristyn McCarthy if you have any questions.