Trainees who wish to become board-eligible in infectious diseases spend approximately 8 months of their first year on infectious diseases consultation services at the NIH Clinical Center and affiliated institutions including George Washington University Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland Hospitals. Additional time is spent learning hospital epidemiology and diagnostic microbiology and working at a sexually transmitted diseases clinic. Journal club and case conferences are held regularly. In the second year of infectious diseases training, continued attendance at case conferences and journal club is required, as is a continuity clinic for HIV-infected patients. Senior investigators in these laboratories are involved in a variety of investigations in various aspects of allergy, clinical and basic immunology, and clinical and basic infectious diseases.
Fellows work under direct supervision of a senior staff member.
This arrangement allows for close daily contact, individual instruction, and continuity during the training period. This interaction between senior staff members and fellows also allows for the gradual maturation of fellows into independent investigators. Current fellows in the training program are pursuing research projects that center around molecular biology as a tool for understanding virulence, host defense, inflammation, and allergy. Akin C, Kirshenbaum A, Scott LM, et al. Demonstration of an activating c-kit mutation in myeloid and lymphoid cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow in mastocytosis.