Infectious Disease Fellowship

The Spectrum Health/Michigan State University Infectious Disease Fellowship is organized to provide training and supervised experience at a sufficient level for fellows to acquire the competency of a specialist in the field of infectious diseases. Our program is two years in duration and offers two fellowship training positions each year. Qualified candidates must be board-eligible or board-certified in internal medicine.

Our program is designed to give fellows wide exposure to the practice of clinical infectious diseases, education, research techniques in infectious diseases, and to acquire clinical proficiency in both inpatient and outpatient aspects of care. Fellows train in a quaternary medical center serving the greater Grand Rapids area and 13 surrounding counties, with combined hospital campuses overseeing over 1,000 beds. The infectious disease program at Spectrum Health assists in serving patients with advanced heart failure and LVAD, heart and lung transplant, bone marrow transplant, an outpatient clinic, and community resources.

Goals and Philosophies
The overall goal of the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University Infectious Disease Fellowship program is to prepare the trainee to function as a competent infectious disease physician in a variety of settings, and to become the clinical and academic leaders of tomorrow. The program is designed to give fellows wide exposure to the practice of clinical infectious diseases, education, research techniques in infectious diseases, and to acquire clinical proficiency in both inpatient and outpatient aspects of care.

Program Overview
The Spectrum Health/Michigan State University Infectious Diseases Fellowship program is organized to provide training and supervised experience at a sufficient level for the fellow to acquire the competency of a specialist in the field of infectious diseases. Our program is two years in duration and offers two fellowship training positions each year. Qualified candidates must be board eligible or board certified in internal medicine.

Modern facilities to accomplish the overall educational program are available at the following sites: Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital, Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, which includes a Level 1 trauma center, Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center, Spectrum Health Cancer Center at Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, the regional burn center, to provide well-rounded and diverse educational experience in the clinical, didactic and research training of the fellows.The infectious disease training program is conducted in a setting in which training programs in surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics and other medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties are available.

Clinical experiences afforded to infectious disease fellows include opportunities to observe and manage adult patients with infectious diseases on both an inpatient and ambulatory basis. The program requires 24 months of supervised clinical/research rotations.

Inpatient Rotations
Inpatient consultations are performed mainly at Butterworth Hospital. At the completion of the required clinical time, the fellow will have provided consultative services for an average of 2,000 inpatients. The inpatient experience includes a pediatric infectious disease rotation conducted at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Ambulatory Care
Outpatient clinic provides care for patients living with HIV infection. Each fellow is required to follow at least 20 HIV patients for a minimum of 12 months. Fellows are also scheduled in the Spectrum Health general infectious disease outpatient clinic.

Elective Rotations
Fellows have the option of experiencing other career opportunities that the infectious diseases specialty training offers, including options to have additional exposure to the following:

Inpatient consultation service
Inpatient consultation (bone and joint exposure)
Pediatric inpatient consultation service
Solid organ transplant service
General infectious disease outpatient clinic
Away rotation

Didactics

The training program provides a variety of conferences and educational experiences. Fellows are expected to participate in the following:

Infectious disease case conference–weekly
Micro rounds–monthly
Research meet-up–weekly
Problem-based learning curriculum–weekly
Journal club–quarterly
Infectious disease city-wide meeting–monthly
Internal medicine grand rounds–weekly

All positions for the program are filled through the National Residency Matching Program. Eligibility requirements for our fellowship program:

Applications are only accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service only, paper applications will not be considered
All applicants must possess U.S. work authorization or be eligible for J-1 status
Applicants must have completed three years of United States postgraduate residency training in an ACGME- or RCPSC-accredited internal medicine program before entry into the fellowship program
Applicants must be an MD or DO
Applicants must have good communication skills

For more information on our program, please contact Pam Hritzkowin, program coordinator.

Spectrum Health 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.

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