Academic Pathways, Scholarly Pursuits, and Professional Development Blocks

Learn more about the ID Fellowship at OHSU!
Fellow Lauren Fontana, DO, in the lab.

Through a mentored relationship with one or more of the faculty of the ID Division and/or collaborating programs, fellows are expected to develop one or more professional development projects. Mentor-fellow teams are arranged early during the first year, after sufficient time has elapsed to become acquainted with the faculty and ongoing division opportunities in a variety of academic, skills building, and research areas.

Our fellows receive funding to attend a national scientific meeting each year, where they can present the results of their research. All fellows are encouraged and supported to submit their work for peer-reviewed publication.

The total time devoted to professional development activities will depend on long-term career objectives, but is at least eleven months in duration. 

We have developed multiple training pathways in focused areas of professional development to support fellows entering differing fields of infectious diseases practice:

Fellows interested in a career focused on medical education are provided opportunities to participate in skills building and teaching activities as well as education scholarship throughout their fellowship. Skills building activities include attending the Educators’ Collaborative Education Grand Rounds, OHSU’s Symposium on Education Excellence, and completing OHSU’s Education Scholars Program in their second year. Teaching activities include leading medical student facilitated small groups as well as Infection Control and Prevention simulations. Fellows can also lead medical student journal clubs and antibiotic stewardship activities in their Infection Intersession courses.  Mentored scholarship in medical education is a part of the pathway with the expectation that a fellow in this pathway will have primary mentorship from one of our ID Division medical education faculty.

Fellows interested in a career focused on transplant associated infections and immunocompromised infectious disease will have the opportunity to rotate on our TID service, engage in weekly TID clinical and infection control meetings, and participate in TID scholarship. Professional development blocks are tailored to support time for these activities as well as additional time on the TID service and in TID clinic. For fellows interested in a primary career in TID after graduation, a third year may be supported by the Division to hone skills in this specialized field of ID. It is the expectation that a fellow in this pathway will have primary mentorship from one of our ID Division transplant ID faculty.

All fellows will now have the opportunity to care for patients in our regional mycobacterial referral clinic during their second year of fellowship as well as engage in specific mycobacterial disease didactics. This experience aims to provide all fellows with exposure to different forms of tuberculous and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections they will manage in clinical practice. Fellows interested in a career focused on mycobacterial infections can additionally participate in multiple active clinical trials, engage in a mentored research experience in collaboration with the OHSU/Portland State University School of Public Health’s Center for Infectious Diseases Studies, and co-manage active tuberculosis cases with county TB programs. It is the expectation that a fellow in this pathway will have primary mentorship from one of our ID Division mycobacterial diseases faculty.

Fellows interested in a career focused primarily on clinical ID practice following graduation use more of their professional development time to hone clinical and systems based practice skills in a variety of care environments ranging from managed care to community-based care models. Quality improvement projects and participation in division or health systems working groups are emphasized over traditional research activities. Second year professional development block activities are additionally tailored to ensure fellows are ready to lead antibiotic stewardship or IPC committees, help manage an active outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT program) and navigate various health systems processes. It is the expectation that a fellow in this pathway will have primary mentorship from one of our ID Division faculty who is focused on clinical and systems level practice.

Fellows pursuing a basic science-oriented ID career are matched with a mentor early on to build their research portfolio. Professional development blocks are tailored to minimize time committed to other activities to allow deep longitudinal work on scholarly projects in the fellows area of research. Often a 3rd year or more is required to successfully launch an academic career as a basic science investigator, and our fellows have traditionally been successful in acquiring funding for this year in collaboration with their research mentors and multidisciplinary research programs at OHSU. It is the expectation that a fellow in this pathway will have primary mentorship from one of OHSU’s basic science faculty who has a track record of success in their field.