Infectious Diseases

General Application Information

The Infectious Diseases Fellowship welcomes informal inquiries via email to Dr. Tonya Crook, Program Director, or by calling 717-531-8881.

The program accepts applications only through the ERAS System.

Interview Details

The program interviews on Thursdays from September through November. Interviews are being held virtually. Those selected to interview will be contacted directly to arrange an interview.

Each fellow meets with the program director at the start of the fellowship for arrangement of the first 12 months and preliminary discussion of the second 12 months.

The first 12 months are largely clinical, while the second can be focused in clinical or laboratory research. A third year of fellowship may be available for special projects and will be arranged individually with the program director.

These are the research expectations for fellows in infectious diseases:

• Each fellow will be required to complete at least one clinical quality improvement project during their fellowship.

• Each fellow will be required to complete at least one research project during their fellowship.

• Each fellow is strongly encouraged to have completed a project during their fellowship that will eventually lead to a publication. That publication can be their research project, their clinical quality improvement project or a case report.

Clinical Rotation Overview

The Infectious Diseases Fellowship provides strong clinical training to ensure that graduating fellows are comfortable and competent at managing complicated infectious diseases problems in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Fellows are required to complete a minimum of 12 months on core inpatient clinical rotations and also have a weekly continuity clinic. Fellows benefit from a flexible learning atmosphere where they are free to explore additional clinical interests, research and teaching with guidance from program leadership to best support their career goals.

Clinical Experience Overview

• Inpatient consults at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center: 12 months split between the 4 core services

  • General Infectious Diseases: 6 months

  • Orthopedic Infectious Diseases: 3 months

  • Solid Organ Transplant Infectious Diseases: 2-3 months

  • Bone Marrow Transplant Infectious Diseases: 1 month

• Fellows’ continuity clinic: 1 half-day per week

• Electives:

  • Inpatient consults at UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg Hospital

  • Inpatient/outpatient pediatrics infectious diseases elective

  • Outpatient infectious diseases clinics

  • Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Prevention

  • Electives sponsored by outside institutions

• Microbiology: 2-week introduction at the start of training plus weekly curriculum first year

• Antimicrobial Stewardship: 1 month (more if desired)

• Research: About 10-12 months depending on number of clinical electives

Inpatient Consults at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Inpatient consults at Hershey Medical Center are the core academic rotations for the fellowship program and are split to include rotations on the general infectious diseases, solid organ transplant, stem cell transplant and orthopedic infectious diseases services (view full list of services). Fellow experience can be tailored with additional elective time on any of the four services, in line with each trainee’s individual goals.

The general infectious diseases team consists of an attending physician, one fellow, medical residents, students and members of allied health services, such as pharmacy. The fellow is the leader of the team, responsible for assessing patients, helping make clinical management decisions and providing education to enthusiastic residents, students and other learners.

The orthopedic, solid organ transplant, and stem cell transplant subspecialty teams consist of an attending physician, advanced practice providers and, on some months, a fellow. Integrative and collaborative learning is stressed on these rotations, and fellows will see patients together with both the infectious diseases attending and the primary team attending in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Subspecialty specific education will be provided and fellows will also have the opportunity to attend primary team conferences and education sessions relevant to their patients.

Fellows’ Continuity Clinic

Each Infectious Diseases fellow is assigned to one half-day continuity clinic per week throughout their two years of clinical training. Patients consist of a mix of persons living with HIV (PLWH) and general infectious diseases patients, including care of patients as part of the outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy program (OPAT).

Fellows are the primary provider for their patients and are supervised by a designated faculty member who is consistent throughout their training. On average, fellows see six to eight patients in clinic each week, with one to two of these slots reserved for new patient referrals.

Inpatient Consults at UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg Hospital: Elective

UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg Hospital is a large, community-based hospital in downtown Harrisburg, Pa., approximately 12 miles from Hershey Medical Center. This rotation allows interested fellows to gain more experience in a community ID setting. Fellows interested in a career outside of academic medicine often find this rotation particularly helpful. It can be fast-paced, with high volume, and offers plenty of interesting pathology. Fellows working on the Harrisburg Hospital infectious diseases service perform in a similar way to the Hershey service, seeing new consults and hospital follow ups throughout the week under the supervision of an ID attending.

Outpatient Infectious Disease Clinics: Elective

This rotation includes half-day clinic sessions to enhance the outpatient infectious diseases experience provided by the fellow continuity clinic. On this elective, in addition to seeing PLWH and general infectious diseases patients, fellows have an opportunity to see subspecialty patients in orthopedic, solid organ transplant and bone marrow transplant infectious diseases. In addition, fellows are able to travel to some satellite clinics to see PLWH in underserved rural communities. A hepatitis B and C clinic experience with the hepatology service may also be available for interested fellows.

Inpatient/Outpatient Pediatrics Infectious Disease Elective

This rotation exposes fellows to the full spectrum of pediatric infectious diseases and includes inpatient consultations as well as selected outpatient clinics both in general pediatric infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS.

Antimicrobial Stewardship Rotation

The Infectious Diseases Fellowship implemented an antimicrobial stewardship rotation for all fellows beginning in 2015, which is overseen and instructed by Dr. Michael Katzman, the director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP). Dr. Katzman is a favorite among fellows and has been elected to the ranks of Distinguished Educators by Penn State College of Medicine. On this rotation, fellows are immersed in the ASP process and spend time reviewing treatment guidelines, analyzing primary literature, and closely collaborating with providers throughout the institution to improve the care of individual patients and limit the rates of antimicrobial resistance.

Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Prevention: Elective

Fellows are required to complete the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)-sponsored Infection Control Lecture series online; this is accomplished during a non-clinical rotation during the first year.

Interested fellows are also invited to attend weekly Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Prevention meetings, monthly Infection Control Committee meetings, and may choose to design an elective focused around a specific research project in this area.

Microbiology

The program recognizes the critical importance of interdisciplinary patient care with the help of colleagues in the Clinical Microbiology laboratory. In August of the first year of fellowship, an orientation to the clinical microbiology laboratory takes place with formal lectures and training over a two-week period. After this two-week period, fellows attend a weekly lecture conducted by the clinical microbiology team for ongoing learning.

In addition, microbiology rounds take place each week on Tuesday mornings, during which both faculty and fellows review the microbiology specimens for patients on service and other interesting specimens seen in the lab each week.

View a video from the American Society for Microbiology about a clinical microbiology lab.

Outside Rotations: Elective

Fellows with a particular interest in a clinical area may arrange to spend an elective period at an outside institution, including international or public-health-based rotations.

Fellows have the opportunity to attend a wide variety of clinical and basic science research conferences in the infectious diseases and microbiology and immunology areas, and the College of Medicine and medical center as a whole, including:

Clinical Infectious Diseases Conference

4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays

Every fellow is expected to attend these conferences each week. This is a clinical conference during which faculty, fellows, residents and students present and discuss clinical cases or guidelines.

Journal Club

12:30 to 1:30 p.m. the second Friday of each month

Every fellow is expected to attend these conferences each month and present on a rotating basis.

Core Curriculum Conference

12:30 to 2 p.m. Thursdays

Each fellow is expected to attend these conferences each week. A two-year schedule of infectious disease-related topics is covered during this conference. These topics are meant to inclusively cover all infectious disease-related topics during a two-year fellowship and to serve as a basis for board review.

HIV/AIDS Conferences

8:30 to 10 a.m. the third Friday of each month

This conference consists a schedule of HIV-related topics followed by a team meeting consisting of case presentations primarily involving genotypes/antiviral histories to determine appropriate changes to treatment, as well as interesting cases of AIDS-related complications, along with review of important HIV/AIDS literature. It is conducted by one of the HIV physicians on a rotating basis to review general topics in HIV medicine. A series of introductory lectures for first-year fellows takes place each August.

Research Conference

12:30 to 1:30 p.m. the third Friday of each month

This conference is designed for brainstorming of research and/or program improvement projects for the fellows, monitoring progress of such projects and presenting data (whether preliminary or at the polishing stage before formal presentation or submission for publication).

ACGME Core Competencies Lecture Series

7 a.m. the first Thursday of each month

The objective of the lecture series is to provide an institutionally sponsored didactic program, aimed at covering some of the core topics inherent in the ACGME competencies. These conferences should be considered mandatory. Since they are available online, they can be viewed at a later time. Learn more about the ACGME Core Competencies Lecture Series.

The annual Resident/Fellow Research Day is held each year (with exception of during the COVID-19 pandemic) on and around the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus.

The intent of the event is to provide an opportunity for residents and fellows to showcase their research accomplishments to their peers in other clinical departments, as well as their colleagues in the basic sciences.

Learn more about Resident/Fellow Research Day here.

Previous presentations from the Infectious Diseases Fellowship are listed here.