Inpatient
During the first year of the program the majority of the fellows' time is spent in performing consultations, under the supervision of a faculty member, on hospitalized pediatric patients with infectious diseases.
In addition to the infectious problems of the normal host, infections in immunocompromised hosts and in surgical patients form a substantial part of this clinical experience.
The Infectious Diseases Consultative Service typically is actively involved in the management of 15-25 patients at any one time. Although they receive most of their clinical training at Children's Hospital Boston, fellows rotate through the Adult Infectious Diseases service of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases service at Boston Medical Center. During the first year fellows take night and weekend call approximately every third week.
Outpatient
Fellows also receive clinical training in the outpatient setting. At the beginning of the fellowship, each fellow takes on the longitudinal care, under the supervision of an HIV specialist, of 8-10 HIV-infected children in the outpatient setting. This experience continues through the three years of the fellowship. First year fellows also participate in the weekly Infectious Diseases clinic, where children with difficult infectious disease problems are evaluated and managed.
Other
In addition to the clinical training, first year fellows receive formal training in clinical microbiology and virology. Early in the first year a month is set aside for research planning for the second and third years of the fellowship.
Conferences in which the fellows participate include:
- weekly divisional case management conference
- weekly Harvard-wide combined infectious disease conference
- weekly immunocompromised host infectious disease conference
- weekly Journal Club
Medical students and residents are regular participants in the Infectious Diseases Service so there is ample opportunity for teaching by the fellows.
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