GOALS/MISSION

Welcome to Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship program. Our goal is to train excellent pulmonary and critical care physicians with a balanced approach that focuses on in-depth knowledge in physiology and pathophysiology as well as competency in clinical medicine, procedural skills and research experience.

CLINICAL TRAINING

The Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship is an ACGME accredited program where fellows are exposed to a large diversity of cases through our clinical sites. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is the primary teaching hospital. Fellows rotate in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, NeuroCritical Care Unit, Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit and provide in-patient general pulmonary consults and interventional pulmonary consults.

Fellows also rotate at Deborah Heart and Lung Center, where they manage the surgical intensive care unit under supervision from an anesthesia critical care physician. Fellows manage post-op cardiac surgery patients (CABG, valve replacement, LVAD , impella and ECMO) and thoracic surgery patients.

Fellows have a continuity clinic once a week (located in the clinical academic building)where they follow outpatients with bread and butter pulmonary problems such as chronic cough, COPD, asthma, pulmonary nodules as well as interstitial lung diseases. They are exposed to sub specialty clinics:Cystic Fibrosis/ Non-CF bronchiectasis/Obstructive Lung Disease. They are also exposed to sleep disorders when they rotate through the Comprehensive Sleep Disorders Clinic/ Sleep .

Global Health: Fellows are encouraged to participate and do research in the global health arena. Fellows can be part of the Global Health Steering Committee. Fellows have travelled to Romania and have worked on Global Health research addressing vulnerable populations in New Brunswick.

EDUCATION

In addition to bedside teaching during in-patient and outpatient rotations, the pulmonary and critical care fellows at Rutgers RWJ Medical School have weekly conferences (4-5 conferences every week) that cover a variety of topics such as :

– Pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology

– Critical Care conferences

– Case Conferences

– Journal Club

– Pulmonary pathology review , chest radiology review

– Critical Care Ultrasound

Fellows have access to a bronchoscopy simulator, which is extremely helpful in improving procedural skills during bronchoscopy, such as: airway anatomy review, endobronchial ultrasound and interactive cases.

RESEARCH

Research and scholarly activity are a core part of our fellowship program. Second year fellows have dedicated research time during their second year of training (around 5 months) and have the opportunity to do clinical research in collaboration with their mentors or bench research ( e.g. lung injury, ARDS, Asthma, Sleep Disorders) at Rutgers University labs.

Fellows are also encouraged to attend all major conferences and present abstracts and original research during these meetings.

1. Asthma Research – Bench Dr. Panetteri’s Lab

2. ARDS Research – Dr. Jared Radbel

3. Cognitive Thinking/Educational Research- Dr. Jagpal

4. Sleep /Diabetes Research- Dr. Aurora

5. Sleep and WorkPlace Guidelines- Dr. Jobanputra

6. World Trade Responders Research- Dr. Sunderram

7. Social Determinants of Health/Population Health/Global Health- Dr. Hussain

8. Therapeutic Drug Network ( Cystic Fibrosis)-Drs Jagpal and Hussain

9. Medical Education Research -Deborah Kim

10. Bronchoscopy/Interventional Bronchoscopy- Ilya Berim

11. Critical Care Ultrasound/Noninvasive hemodynamic Research -Ibrahim El-Husseini

RECENT CHANGES

Ultrasound Conference – Critical Care ultrasound lecture series and case reviews.

Ultrasound rounds / Vent rounds – Weekly conferences (in an alternating fashion) that focus on bedside teaching of critical care ultrasound and it’s application and in-depth discussion of mechanical ventilation.