Welcome to Loyola Medicine’s Rheumatology Fellowship Program!
Learn about our dedication to fostering a learning experience in which trainees gain skills to provide excellent rheumatological care, to educate future generations of physicians, and to contribute meaningful research to the field of rheumatology. It takes several components of the fellowship to meet these goals: a comprehensive faculty driven curriculum, multiple board review sessions over the two year fellowship, ultrasound workshops with hands on clinical training, close research mentoring and support, to name a few, and much more. Above all, a salient feature of Loyola’s Rheumatology Fellowship is the dedication of our team to give compassionate and exceptional care to our patients while modeling this for fellows in a teaching environment that both supports and challenges them to become great rheumatologists.
We look forward to meeting you!
Julia Baker, M. Ed.
julbaker@lumc.edu
Program Coordinator
Clinical Training, Experience and Support
Loyola Medicine's subspecialty Rheumatology Fellowship program will provide training and supervised experience at a sufficient level to acquire competency as a specialist in rheumatic diseases. The training program is two years in duration of which 18 months are devoted to clinical training.
The clinical experience in rheumatology will include opportunities to observe and manage inpatients and outpatients with a wide variety of rheumatologic disorders. Fellows will have the opportunity to assess and provide ongoing care for acutely and chronically ill patients in order to learn the natural history of rheumatologic disease, as well as the effectiveness of therapeutic programs.
Fellows will rotate at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago as well as our orthopedics, and physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics to ensure that they gain competency in pediatric rheumatology and selected orthopedic disorders.
The fellowship program provides trainees with exposure to quality improvement processes and enables each fellow to become familiar with billing and coding issues. A series of ultrasound workshops, coupled with ultrasound clinic experience, allows fellows to gain skills in diagnostic and procedural musculoskeletal ultrasound.
Research Training, Experience and Support
Time dedicated to research is allotted during both years of the fellowship to complete research and quality improvement projects. Both projects are closely mentored and supported by faculty, allowing the fellow to develop an understanding of scientific principles and their application to research projects.
Additionally, didactic lectures dedicated to the development of research skills will be provided to trainees throughout their fellowship training.
Educational Programs, Conferences & Seminars
Clinical Presentation Conference
This one hour conference will be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The first and second-year fellows will alternate weeks presenting an interesting or challenging case seen in the outpatient clinics or inpatient consult service.
They will then lead a focused discussion about the case based on a literature review covering, but not limited to clinical presentation, pathogenesis, histology and treatments.
Radiology Conference
This one hour conference will be held on the first Tuesday of each month. Fellow and attending physicians will bring interesting cases which will be used for group discussion and radiographic findings covered with a musculoskeletal radiologist.
Journal Club
This one hour conference will be held on the third Tuesday of each month. Fellows and attendings will be assigned a month where they select and present peer-reviewed articles relating to rheumatological and immunological topics for group discussion. At least one journal club per year is dedicated to disparities in healthcare.
Professional Development
Multiple sessions of faculty development are presented each year, and designed to be relevant to fellows. These include lectures or book clubs on a range of topics including leadership and teaching skills, diversity and inclusion, wellness and compassionate care, and ACGME and ACR updates pertinent to the program.
Lecture Curriculum & Fellow Educational Days
Fellows are provided with an extensive lecture curriculum that occurs weekly, on average, throughout the whole year. This series of lectures is given entirely by faculty, and also includes visiting faculty from outside division and departments.
This includes two Fellow Educational Days during which fellows are excused from clinical duties and presented a series of didactics. Topics during these Educational Days include clinical and pathology topics, as well as research methods, manuscript writing, specialty pharmacy lectures, and wellness discussions.
Board Review
Fellows meet with the associate program director throughout each year of fellowship to develop a plan and assess progress for board exam preparation. Multiple one hour board review sessions are given each year, with unique topics covered during each of the two years of fellowship. In addition to these sessions, a series of board review discussions with separate teaching faculty provide additional support for board exam preparation.
Grand Rounds
This one hour conference is held weekly on Tuesdays by Loyola's department of medicine and fellows are encouraged to attend. A schedule of conferences is available from the department of medicine.
Clinical Pathological Conference (CPC)
This one hour weekly conference, where in-depth presentations and discussions of interesting and challenging cases are hosted by Loyola's department of medicine, is attended by fellows, residents and attending physicians. A schedule of conferences is available from the department of medicine.
American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
This conference occurs twice a year. The first is the ACR Education Exchange that occurs in the spring of each year. The second is the National ACR Convergence Meeting which occurs in the fall each year. All fellows are excused from clinical duties to attend these conferences.
