Curriculum

Infectious Diseases Fellowship – Curriculum

Our two-year curriculum blends high-volume inpatient consults, robust ambulatory care, core subspecialty rotations, structured didactics, and protected research time. Fellows train across Kern Medical and partner sites; Ronald Regan Medical Center, UCLA, and Cedars Sinai Medical Center, with a continuity clinic maintained throughout both years.

Continuity clinic (2 years)

• Weekly continuity clinic (half-day): Fellows alternate HIV care and general ID longitudinal care within Kern Medical’s ambulatory settings.
• Scope: HIV management, post-discharge ID follow-up, OPAT, coccidioidomycosis, transplant-related infections (as encountered), and general infectious diseases.
• Longitudinal learning: Antimicrobial stewardship principles, vaccination, PrEP/PEP, chronic infection management, and social determinants of health integrated across the year.

Rotation Schedule

13 blocks per academic year (≈4-week blocks).

Year 1 (F1)
Rotation	Length (Weeks)
Inpatient General ID Consults	28
Ambulatory*	12
Transplant ID (Cedars Sinai Medical Center)	4
Clinical Microbiology (Cedars Sinai Medical Center)	2
Epidemiology (Cedars Sinai Medical Center)	2
Vacation	4

Year 2 (F2)
Rotation	Length (Weeks)
Inpatient General ID Consults	24
Ambulatory*	16
Transplant ID (Ronald Regan Medical Center/UCLA)	4
Elective	4
Vacation	4

*Ambulatory blocks: General ID clinic, Cocci clinic, Immunology clinic, OPAT clinic, Scholarly mornings, Public Health mornings, Antimicrobial Stewardship afternoons, Infusion Clinic (see below for details)

Notes: Senior year emphasizes graduated autonomy on consults, ambulatory leadership, and tailored electives (e.g., stewardship, infection prevention, mycology/cocci, wound clinic, addiction street medicine etc.).

Example Ambulatory and Inpatient Schedule Overview

Items in purple are longitudinal throughout onsite rotations

Example of Ambulatory Week Schedule
Clinic	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
AM	Scholarly	Scholarly	Scholarly, intrathecal Ampho procedures	Public Health Department Site 4	Didactics
Lunch		Optional: VFI Research Biweekly meetings		ID Board Review	UCLA Didactics via Zoom
PM	Weeks 1, 2 & 3: General ID clinic	Cocci Clinic	Week 1 & 3: Immunology Clinic	Week 1 & 3: Continuity Fellow ID Clinic	Quality and Committees
	Week 4: UCLA Didactic via Zoom		Week 2 & 4: HIV Fellow Continuity Clinic	Week 2 & 4: OPAT

Example of Inpatient Schedule
Clinic	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
AM	Inpatient consult	Inpatient consult	Inpatient consult	Inpatient consult	Didactics
Lunch		Optional: VFI Research Biweekly meetings		ID Board Review	UCLA Didactics via Zoom
PM	Inpatient consult	Inpatient consult	Inpatient consult	Week 1 & 3: Continuity Fellow ID Clinic	Inpatient consult
	Week 4: UCLA Didactic via Zoom		Week 2 & 4: HIV Fellow Continuity Clinic

Call frequency

• Weeks 1 & 3 while on service 7 am -7 pm
• Saturday weeks 1& 3 while on service 7 am-2 pm
• Note: No after-hour or overnight calls

Didactic training & conferences

• Protected Friday education block
  • 8:30–9:30 a.m.: Core ID curriculum, board-aligned lecture series, and journal club, antimicrobial stewardship conference, infection prevention & control updates,
  • 9:30–10:30 a.m.: ID Case conference
• UCLA didactics via Zoom on Friday at noon and Monday academic afternoons
• Interdisciplinary exposure with Pharmacy, Infection Prevention, and the Microbiology Laboratory team
• Microbiology rounds while on consult service with plate/smear reviews and challenges

Research & scholarly activity

• Dedicated research time distributed across the year (protected blocks in both years).
• Focus areas commonly include: regional mycoses (e.g., coccidioidomycosis), stewardship/OPAT outcomes, infection prevention, and clinical epidemiology.
• Fellows present at institutional, regional, and national conferences and are encouraged to submit abstracts/manuscripts for publication.

Teaching & evaluation

• Bedside and consult-service teaching for residents/students.
• 360° evaluations each block; semiannual reviews align with ACGME milestones and board competencies.
• Graduated responsibility from Year-1 supervised consults to Year-2 service leadership.

Clinical laboratories

• Training integrates with the hospital’s microbiology and serology services, including bench exposure during micro/epi rotations and case-linked plate rounds