Rheumatology Grand Rounds is the primary teaching conference for the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology.  This conference encompasses Case-based Conference, Rheumatology Research Conference, and Pathology Conference as detailed below.  Dr. Criscione-Schreiber is the faculty advisor for this conference.

Rheumatology case-based conference: A clinical, case-based conference generally led by one or two of the fellows.  This conference follows one of two formats.  In the first format, one or two patients seen in one of the clinical settings are presented by a fellow, resident, or rheumatology faculty member.  The presenter prepares a clinical summary and leads discussion of the case.  These presentations are intended as clinical conferences and not didactic lecture time.  Whenever possible, the patient is to be present at the conference.  Depending on the topic, faculty from another service may be invited to participate because of expertise in a particular area (e.g. thrombosis in lupus).  This conference is intended to reflect recent clinical experiences at Duke and the VA.  While discussion is broad to teach students and residents on the service, there is an effort to focus on specific disease manifestations or treatment issues relevant to the case discussed (e.g. gastrointestinal disease in lupus erythematosus, inflammatory eye disease in vasculitis).  In the second format, the presenter describes a clinical case and question followed by an in-depth discussion of medical literature relevant to the inquiry. Each rheumatology fellow presents at 3 – 4 Rheumatology Grand Rounds each year; each fellows’ last grand rounds presentation is a presentation of their fellowship research project. 

Research Conference:  These talks are given by senior staff members from throughout the medical center, visiting faculty, and rheumatology fellows in research.  Topics covered are a wide variety of cell and molecular biology aspects of immune cell function as well as topics presented by scientists who are performing the most outstanding "cutting edge" research in the medical center.

Pathology Conference:  The Pathology Conference is held quarterly.  The purpose of the Pathology Conference is to provide experience for the trainee in viewing primary data and understanding the relationship of the results of histopathological findings in the clinical care of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.  Each conference consists of 3-5 cases prepared by the fellow on service for review and discussion by a pathologist.  Material reviewed include light microscopy, electron microscopy and immunofluorescence

 

 

This is a clinical conference is attended by rheumatology fellows and faculty and bone radiology faculty, fellows, residents, and students.  The goal of this conference is to teach the trainee important issues in the radiological diagnosis of arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases.  Plain radiographs, CT, and MRI images are all presented.  Each rheumatology fellow is expected to bring 1-2 x-rays to the conference for presentation and discussion led by bone radiology faculty.  Areas covered include the radiologic features of RA, OA, spondyloarthropathy, crystal induced arthropathy, infection and regional musculoskeletal disorders such as rotator cuff syndrome and internal derangement of the knee.  This conference is supplemented by introductory didactic lectures from bone radiology faculty during the core curriculum conference.  Dr. E. William St. Clair is the faculty advisor for this conference.

 

This is primarily a didactic conference targeted towards teaching fellows the core body of information necessary to be a rheumatologist.  Topics are guided by the Core Curriculum Outline designed by the American College of Rheumatology and found on their website at www.rheumatology.org/educ/training/directors.asp.  In addition to core didactic lectures, many of the sessions are devoted to in-depth training on the physical examination of specific joints as well as hands-on training with physical and occupational therapists focusing on rehabilitation for musculoskeletal problems.  Dr. Stacy Ardoin is the faculty advisor for this conference.

 

The goals of the Journal Club conference are 1) to review recent, relevant literature in Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, and 2) to teach and reinforce the principles of evidence based medicine and to establish strong skills in critical appraisal of the literature in the context of clinically relevant topics in rheumatology.  Faculty and fellows are assigned to choose papers and develop teaching objectives for each conference.  To ensure appropriate discussion, all readings are made available at least ten days prior to the conference.  Fellows are provided with copies of selected resources from ACP Journal Club and the Cochrane Collection to use as references.  Dr. David Pisetsky is the faculty advisor for this conference.