Curriculum

Conference

Rheumatology didactic conference occurs weekly on Thursday afternoon. This curriculum is modified on an annual basis to comprehensively cover diverse topics in rheumatology over the two-year training period. Each year we begin with a four-hour joint injection workshop using joint injection models of knee, shoulder, and hand. In the first two months, we also provide a “Nuts and Bolts” series covering the fundamentals of diagnosis and management of the most common diseases seen in rheumatology. This serves as a solid foundation for the first-year fellow and reinforces these principles for the second-year fellow. Each fellow prepares a monthly didactic talk on a variety of topics with an emphasis on pathophysiology, immunology, and molecular mechanisms of disease.

Journal Club

We have monthly journal clubs to learn to critically interpret the literature and provide an evidence based foundation for clinical decision making.

Additional Didactics

Twice monthly we meet with one of our MSK radiologists to review cases and do hands-on MSK ultrasound training. We incorporate board review modules, a pathology series, clinical topic reviews, and interdivisional conferences with nephrology and pulmonology. The diverse and comprehensive diseases managed by our fellows, augmented with the structured and intentional didactic series prepare our fellows to be outstanding and highly competitive clinicians, and has resulted in 100% first time board pass rate since the program’s inception.