The Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the Augusta University is a 3-year training
program granting Board eligibility in both pulmonary and critical care. Each year
we choose 3-4 fellows to join our program for a total of 10 fellows in training at
any given time.
Our division has 12 full time clinical faculty members (9 at AU and 3 at VAMC) who
are board certified in Pulmonary or Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine. Four faculty
are board certified in Sleep Disorders and one faculty is board certified in Interventional
Pulmonology. We also have 4 full time PhD research faculty members and additional
PhD research associates.
Additional Strengths of the Program
Affiliation with Augusta Veterans Administration Medical Center, a major teaching
site.
A regional referral center for pulmonary hypertension with opportunity to learn elective
right heart catheterization and vasodilator treatment.
National referral center for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations and hereditary
hemorrhagic telangiectasia.
Adult and pediatric Cystic Fibrosis centers.
Georgia Sleep Center with multichannel polysomnography, sleep latency testing, actigraphy
and home sleep testing.
Interventional bronchoscopy techniques of endobronchial ultrasound, balloon bronchial
dilatation, tissue ablation with argon plasma coagulation, electrocautery and cryoablation;
tracheobronchial stents; percutaneous tracheostomies.
Rotation at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctor's Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.
Ongoing NIH funded research in vascular biology, ARDS and sepsis.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation rotation at Piedmont Hospital.
Interventional rotation at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, Georgia.
Clinical and Elective Rotations
Rotations are generally 4 weeks in duration and include clinical and elective rotations.
The clinical rotations are divided between the Augusta University 4-ICU, VA Medical/Surgical
ICU, Augusta University Pulmonary consult service, and VA Pulmonary consults service.
Fellows typically have 12 months for research and elective training and 24 months
of clinical training divided between MCG and the VAMC. Fellows rotate on the trauma
service at Augusta University or the Joseph M. Still burn center one month during
their fellowship.
Subspecialty Clinics
During their three years of training, fellows rotate through different pulmonary subspecialty
clinics during their outpatient block, that includes: ILD/ Sarcoidosis, Non-CF bronchiectasis/Non-Tuberculous
mycobacterium clinic, Pulmonary Hypertension clinic, COPD/Alpha-1 anti trypsin clinic/Asthma
clinic, Sleep, Chronic Ventilator Management clinic, Interventional Pulmonary Clinic,
HHT clinic, Adult Cystic fibrosis clinic, exposing them to a wide broad different
pathologies, management of common pulmonary outpatient disease, and also learn to
work in a multidisciplinary team, as they work closely with specialty clinic nurse
coordinators, respiratory therapist, registered dietitian, social work, pharmacist,
etc.
Conferences
Monday: Critical Care Ultrasound Training (monthly)
Tuesday: Department of Medicine "DOM" Grand Rounds (weekly)
Wednesday: Interstitial Lung Disease Conference "ILD" (bi-weekly at 7:30); Multidisciplinary
Core Curriculum (weekly - Sept - March); VA Tumor Board Conference (weekly at 12:00);
Pulmonary Grand Rounds (monthly Sept - May at 7:30)
Thursday: Fellow's conference series (weekly) which includes Journal Club and x-ray conference
(monthly); DOM M&M Conference (monthly); DOM Research Seminar (monthly)
Friday: Structured Reading Program "SRP" Conference (weekly)
Core Curriculum: July and August (Monday - Friday)
Additional Benefits
All first year fellows start at the PGY4 pay grade regardless of prior training or
experience.
