Fellowship Program
Program Information
The USF Department of Internal Medicine's Division of Allergy and Immunology in collaboration with the Division of Allergy and Immunology at All Children's Hospital offers a broad-based training program in Allergy and Immunology. Built on a foundation of financial security and balanced education, these allergy/immunology training programs strive to be "the best they can be" in training allergists/immunologists, internal medicine and pediatric residents and medical students. During the 2-3 year training period, fellows participate in the treatment of patients with allergic or immunological diseases and conduct mentored projects in basic or clinical research.
The two to three year fellowship program was established and has been certified by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology since 1976. Two or three fellows are accepted into the program each year. Approximately 30% of former trainees are in academic medicine and 70% in clinical practice. The Director and faculty remain in contact with trainees, all of whom have gone on to acquire excellent reputations in the medical schools and/or communities in which they practice. The faculty are all members of the Division of Allergy and Immunology in the USF Department of Internal Medicine as well as the Division of Allergy and Immunology in the USF Department of Pediatrics.
The success of the USF Allergy and Immunology fellowship program is rooted in its balance and diversity.
It is the faculty's goal to train academicians as well as clinicians. Academic medicine involves practicing in a medical school with abundant opportunities for teaching, learning through seminars and symposia, stimulating interaction with diverse colleagues and engaging in research. These unique benefits provide the fellows with a well-rounded educational as well as clinical experience.
The success of the USF Allergy and Immunology fellowship program is rooted in its balance and diversity. The Division's strengths are in the education of fellows, medical students, internists and pediatricians. Physician faculty teach fellows the "ins and outs" of running a clinic during the approximately 25 to 30 hours per week each member spends in the Clinic. The Division's faculty also supervise training and patient care in several USF clinics, including a world renowned immunodeficiency clinic at All Children's Hospital, St. Petersburg, Florida. Clinical and basic faculty members participate in clinical and basic research at the Joy McCann Culverhouse Airways Disease Research Center. This allows fellows to have a very broad based opportunity to participate in a variety of basic and clinical research. The Division's experience includes a rotation through a very active clinical research unit where clinical research projects instituted by faculty, fellows, as well as pharmaceutical firms are carried forward.
Faculty members have diverse interests. Some are focused on allergic diseases while others are interested in immunologic disorders. All have interest in both arms of the specialty, i.e., allergy and immunology. The Pediatric Program has an active bone marrow transplantation service for primary immunodeficiency patients. Therefore, the USF Allergy and Immunology training program experience provides a unique opportunity for patient contact and "hands-on" experience in both pediatric and adult allergy and immunology research, teaching, and patient care, giving the program a "big" A (allergy), " big" I (immunology) identification, unique in the field of allergy and immunology training programs.
Both the Department of Internal Medicine Division of Allergy and Immunology and the Department of Pediatrics Division of Allergy and Immunology have an ongoing cooperative program whereby the residents from the pediatric program rotate at least one day per week on the internal medicine program and vice-versa. Individuals from the Department of Internal Medicine program rotate each Tuesday at All Children’s Hospital located approximately 45 minutes from the USF Tampa campus where they participate in a primary and secondary immunodeficiency clinic, one of the best in the world. The pediatric fellows in training rotate on Mondays at the Tampa Campus.
In summary, The USF Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Allergy and Immunology is committed to preparing and training specialists who will provide exemplary, state-of-the-art care to patients with allergic and immunologic diseases. The faculty expect it's graduates to share this vision, to assume leadership positions and to advance the science of the field of allergy and immunology. All fellows who have graduate from the program in the past ten years have passed Boards and many have now assumed leadership positions, either in medical schools or clinical practice.