Loyola University Medical Center

Gottlieb Memorial Hospital

MacNeal Hospital

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Education, Training, Research & Conferences

Educational Goals

The educational objectives of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship training program include development of the core competencies required for expertise in the diagnosis and care of patients with a broad spectrum of infection-related problems.

The Fellowship Program Director and Infectious Diseases faculty are dedicated to ensuring that trainees acquire and demonstrate the necessary fundamental knowledge, skills and patient-focused empathetic attitudes that characterize the practice of Infectious Diseases at its highest level.

The goal is to provide trainees the role models and learning environment that will prepare them for a lifelong career as excellent diagnosticians, patient advocates, practitioners of public health and epidemiology, researchers and lifelong students as well as teachers who will pass along these traits to future trainees.

Clinical Training

Fellowship training occurs over a two-year period. Fellows obtain their training on the inpatient services and in the outpatient clinics at Loyola University Medical Center and the adjacent Edward J. Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital.

Training at these venues allows fellows to be exposed to the best of both public and private medicine, by providing access to a highly diverse, multicultural population of patients with a broad spectrum of infectious diseases problems.

Inpatient Consultative ID

There are three, full-time infectious diseases services on which the fellows rotate during the course of their training including the general infectious diseases consultation service at the Loyola University Medical Center as well as the Hines VA Hospital and the transplant infectious diseases consultation service at Loyola University Medical Center.

The two years of the fellowship consist of approximately 13 calendar months total of inpatient consultative services, during which fellows rotate through all three of these services.

Opportunities are available for experiences in pediatric infectious diseases and other inpatient consultative environments. Fellows are evaluated and counseled through ongoing interactions with attending physicians and regular meetings with the fellowship program director.

Outpatient Clinics

In addition to their inpatient consultative experiences, fellows see patients with infectious disease faculty in one half-day of outpatient ID clinic per week, alternating between Loyola and the VA, during the first year of training.

During the second year of training, fellows continue development of their outpatient consultative skills through two half-day clinics per week – one at the VA and one at Loyola – with continued mentoring by ID faculty. Specific attention is given to creation of opportunities for continuity care through mentored experiences in "fellow clinics" at both Loyola and the VA.

Ample opportunities exist at both institutions for fellows to acquire expertise in the care and long-term management of patients with HIV/AIDS and related problems, through teaching interactions with clinical faculty and dedicated support by PharmD staff with expertise in HIV/AIDS patient care.

The focus on continuity of care also allows scheduling of follow-ups for continued outpatient care of patients originally seen in the context of inpatient ID consultations.

Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Practicum

Early in the first year of training, all fellows participate in a month-long practicum in the clinical microbiology laboratory at Loyola University Medical Center. This includes a lab quality project assigned by the laboratory director.

Under the supervision of the PhD microbiologist leader of the laboratory, fellows learn the fundamentals of clinical microbiology and the theory and application of rapidly changing diagnostic methodologies. This experience provides fellows with the opportunity to learn the importance of collaborative practice with microbiology laboratory personnel and the basics of diagnostic microbiology technologies.

This opportunity also positions fellows to more effectively interpret and use microbiology laboratory data in the clinical setting. Fellows use this expertise throughout their clinical training, as a basis for the important, lifelong practice of collaborative, integrated decision-making using microbiology laboratory expertise and resources.

Hospital Infection Control Training

Hospital infection control is an increasingly important subdiscipline within infectious diseases. Therefore, it is critical for infectious diseases fellows to have the opportunity to learn the basics of this discipline during their subspecialty training.

Because of the universal need of hospitals for this type of support from their infectious diseases specialists, expertise and experience in infection control provides an important career direction for fellows.

In the combined Loyola/Hines VA Infectious Diseases training system, fellows have the outstanding opportunity to work with several faculty with expertise in infection control and with two dedicated leaders (one at each institution) of infection control programs who provide the learning environment and mentoring needed for fellows to acquire expertise and experiences.

Each fellow will complete the IDSA/SHEA-sponsored infection control course. And each trainee will also actively participate in infection control related activities and projects during their training. There are numerous opportunities for Fellow involvement in infection prevention and outbreak investigations that can lead to research projects during the fellowship.

Antimicrobial Stewardship Training

Evolving patterns of antibiotic resistance, increasing costs of antimicrobial therapy and the availability of new antimicrobial agents create an ongoing challenge to the optimal use of antimicrobial agents in healthcare institutions.

The antimicrobial stewardship program at Loyola is led by infectious disease faculty and is a combined effort with infectious disease pharmacy staff and hospital pharmacy services, with oversight by an advisory group that represents multiple programs within the infectious disease division and department of medicine.

This program collaborates closely with the clinical microbiology laboratory and the hospital infection control program to consider emerging patterns of antibiotic resistance and hospital-based practices, to develop effective antibiotic monitoring, guidelines and education. The increasing importance of antimicrobial stewardship in the future of medicine makes infectious disease fellow involvement in Stewardship activities a critical part of the fellowship training program.

The related studies, guideline development and analyses of patterns of emergence of resistance provide numerous opportunities for collaboration with colleagues involved in public health and outcomes studies. Fellows will complete the IDSA-sponsored ASP training course early in their fellowship.

Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) Training

Our OPAT program aims to deliver safe, cost effective and high quality of care to patients in need for IV antimicrobial therapy in the outpatient setting.

The program is led by an infectious disease physician supported by an OPAT registered nurse, infectious disease pharmacist and infectious disease fellow. Our program provides training opportunities for fellows to learn the complexities and intricacies of managing patients enrolled in OPAT.

Each week, a fellow is assigned to review OPAT patients with the team where they review laboratory results, discuss microbiology results and therapy plan for each patient. Infectious disease fellows will also learn how to navigate challenges and complications of long-term antimicrobial use.