The Rheumatology Fellowship Program at Duke University Medical Center combines rigorous clinical training with opportunities to pursue a program in clinical or basic research.

 

The training program is designed to produce rheumatologists who will be successful in all fields, whether in private practice, as academic clinician educators or as physician-scientists. Graduates of the Duke training program have achieved positions of leadership and distinction in virtually all fields related to rheumatology.

 

The Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center has consistently ranked among the top rheumatology programs in the country, with a reputation for excellence in its tripartite missions of patient care, research, and education.

 

The overarching goals of the program are to:

 

 

Graduates of this program have a strong track record of becoming well-respected physicians in their community as well as academic leaders of our subspecialty. Over the past five years, 100 percent of our fellow graduates who took the rheumatology board examination passed on the first administration.

 

 

Our program offers sufficient flexibility in training to help fellows meet their individual career goals. We offer a two-year fellowship for candidates whose objective is to become clinically competent in the field of rheumatology and meet the requirements for board-eligibility.

 

For those fellows with a goal of becoming physician-scientists or clinical educators, we offer an additional one or more years of research training. The adult and pediatric divisions of rheumatology share a NIAID-supported T32 training grant that funds fellows wishing to pursue additional years of training in research or pursuit of a Masters in Health Sciences. Duke also offers a combined four-year program in adult and pediatric rheumatology.

 

During the first clinical year, trainees are assigned to monthly rotations on the Duke Consult Service, the Durham VA Medical Center (DVAMC) Consult Service, or an elective experience. All fellows maintain their own continuity clinics both at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) for on half-day per week and the DVAMC for two half-day sessions per week. All clinics are directly supervised by full-time rheumatology faculty.

 

In addition, fellows attend a community outreach clinic off-site one day each month with a rheumatology faculty member, which affords an opportunity to provide care in a rural community setting with one-on-one teaching. All fellows are required to take part in the pediatric rheumatology clinics and participate in the pediatric joint injection clinic. Self-directed learning is an essential part of our fellowship training program. Fellows are expected to discuss the relevant scientific literature on consult rounds and in clinic, lead journal clubs, and deliver oral presentations at weekly conferences. All second-year fellows design and implement a patient care improvement project under the guidance of a faculty member.

 

During the course of training, all fellows are expected to develop and conduct an independent research project. These projects are tailored to the interests of the fellows, keeping in mind the feasibility of suitable projects and availability of faculty mentors. Each research fellow identifies a mentoring committee that meets three times yearly to provide oversight and advice during the second and all subsequent years of fellowship training. Fellows are expected to submit their research for presentation at scientific meetings. Fellows are all invited to co-author a review article or book chapter during their training.

 

The fellowship program is led by Dr. Lisa Criscione-Schreiber, program director, and Ms. Dawn O’Briant, training program coordinator. All the adult as well as pediatric rheumatology faculty members participate significantly in fellow education.

 

For more information about this program, please select one of the Fellowship Program links to the right.