Pulmonary disease and critical care medicine fellowship

The Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship offers fellows a broad experience in acute and chronic respiratory conditions, critical care and diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in world-class facilities with cutting-edge technology. Trainees get experience in a variety of specialties, including interventional pulmonology, lung transplant, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, sarcoidosis, critical care, lung cancer and interstitial lung disease.

Welcome to the Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship.

Corewell Health in West Michigan is committed to improving the health and wellness of our communities. Our talented physicians and caregivers are privileged to offer a full continuum of care and wellness services to our communities through 14 hospitals, including Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals), 150 ambulatory sites and telehealth offerings.

The fellowship program is an ACGME-accredited, three-year program based at Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Butterworth Hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center with 679 acute care beds and 80 ICU beds. It is a major referral center for lung cancer, interventional pulmonology, lung and heart transplant, mechanical circulatory support, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and adult blood and marrow transplant.

The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine has 40 specialists and is affiliated with Michigan State University. We are supportive of academic pursuits and the expertise of our faculty have resulted in numerous publications and presentations in peer-reviewed journals and national scientific meetings.

The mission of the fellowship is to improve the health of the communities we serve by training future medical leaders in this field. Our core values are teamwork, accountability, compassion, integrity, respect and excellence. They are key to provide the best care to our patients and foster an environment of learning, collegiality and innovation. Spectrum Health was the first hospital with robotic bronchoscopy in Michigan and center of excellence in robotic bronchoscopy. The Corewell Health Richard DeVos Heart & Lung Transplant Program has been recognized as having one of the best outcomes in the nation (based on the report by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients).

In support of our goals, the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine has developed service lines tailored to the needs of our patients. We provide care to the complete range of lung disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, interstitial lung diseases and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, pulmonary hypertension, cystic fibrosis, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, pleural effusion, sleep apnea and lung cancer.

Collaboration is part of our culture and essential in the decision-making processes during multidisciplinary ICU rounds, Multidisciplinary Lung Cancer Conference, Multidisciplinary Interstitial Lung Disease Conference and Lung Transplant Selection Committee.

Our fellows learn to evaluate patients with respiratory symptoms and radiographic abnormalities and interpret pulmonary function tests, cardiopulmonary exercise tests, bronchial challenge testing, exhaled nitric oxide testing and sleep studies. Fellows perform diagnostic and therapeutic interventions like flexible bronchoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound, robotic bronchoscopy, thoracentesis, tunneled pleural catheters; and are exposed to rigid bronchoscopy, tumor laser ablation, stent placement, endobronchial valves for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction for qualified patients with emphysema, bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma, medical thoracoscopy (pleuroscopy), and percutaneous tracheostomy through our interventional pulmonology service.

Fellows have the important role of teaching residents and medical students. They participate in didactic activities giving lectures, presenting in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality and act as instructors in workshops with simulation.

In collaboration with the Office of Research, fellows receive guidance and core lectures to develop their research projects. Many of our faculty are involved in clinical research, allowing fellows to have many mentors. There are opportunities to collaborate with the Corewell Health Health – Michigan State University Alliance Corporation.

As a fellow, you will learn the fundamentals of quality improvement and its applications in an academic environment. All fellows are encouraged to take on a QI project during their fellowship training.

We are committed to developing leadership and expertise to advance patient care and expand the knowledge base of pulmonary and critical care medicine. Our high-volume and clinically diverse program offers a unique experience to shape future specialists in these disciplines.

We invite you to explore our program and consider joining us to further develop our mission.

Maximiliano Tamae Kakazu, MD, FCCP
Program Director, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
Associate Professor of Medicine, Corewell Health - Grand Rapids/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

The Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship seeks to train clinical scholars who are equally prepared to enter academic medicine or the private sector. Pursuant to these goals there is a strong emphasis on the following:

• Mastery of the knowledge base
• Excellence in patient care
• Acquiring skills in teaching and mentoring
• Procedural expertise
• Clinical research

The program is based at Butterworth Hospital in the intensive care unit and lung transplant clinic with the following complementary experiences:

Didactics

Each year starts with an intensive fellow boot camp that includes a daily conference series covering topics in pulmonary and critical care medicine. These conferences then transition to morning report, pulmonary and critical care grand rounds, multidisciplinary interstitial lung disease conference, research conference/journal club, critical care morbidity and mortality, and during determined rotations will have specific conferences (i.e. lung transplant selection committee, multidisciplinary interventional pulmonology conference, multidisciplinary lung cancer conference).

Our program strongly supports fellow research and many of our faculty are involved in clinical research. Fellows also receive support from our scholarly activity support team. The scholarly activity support team also offers biostatistics consultation and help with poster preparation. Residents will be expected to submit their work for presentation at an institutional Research Day, held in April annually. There are opportunities to collaborate with the Corewell Health – Michigan State University Alliance Corporation led by Dr. Xiaopeng Li.

Here is a list of publications that our faculty have participated in.

Applications to the Corewell Health - Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship are accepted exclusively through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). We participate in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Medical Specialties Matching Program. Applicants must register with National Resident Matching Program and agree to the terms of the NRMP Match. All applicants must possess U.S. work authorization or be eligible for J-1 status.

Please contact Jeffery Denhof, program coordinator, with any questions. 

Corewell Health in West Michigan provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.