Fellowship Programs > Program Overview

Program Overview

The fellowship program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is well established and has a tradition of graduating both superior clinicians and researchers. Jefferson Medical College was established in 1824, and is one of the largest private medical schools in the United States. The Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has 848 beds with over 27,000 admissions annually. The hospital serves as a major tertiary care center for the Delaware Valley. The Division oversees approximately 600 admissions, 1,000 in-patient consultations, and more than 300 endoscopic procedures each year. Moreover, there are approximately 3,000 outpatient visits annually.

Thomas Jefferson University is an internationally recognized center for medical research. Our division faculty has a broad range of interests and expertise in pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine, and basic science. The majority of the training experience is at Jefferson Medical College and its University Hospital, which is located in Center City Philadelphia. During the fellowship, two to three months are also spent on the combined medical/coronary intensive care unit at Lankenau Hospital, a participating affiliate located five miles from Center City. Lankenau is one of the largest members of the extended Jefferson health system and is a major referral center for cardiac disease in the Delaware valley. Lankenau also has an extremely active sleep and pulmonary rehabilitation program that the fellows participate in. The part-time faculty at the Lankenau Hospital consists of pulmonologist/intensivists and a clinical psychologist with special expertise in disorders of sleep. These individuals are graduated from the premier pulmonary programs in the country, and provide a valuable clinical experience which complements that of the university hospital.

Our goal is to prepare qualified individuals as proficient and independent clinician-scientists. By the end of the training period, fellows will be skilled in the management of pulmonary diseases and general critical care problems; skilled in the performance of relevant invasive procedures; and trained in the design and execution of basic or clinical research. This is a three year program (with optional additional years for research) leading to eligibility for board certification in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine.

This highly flexible program enables the individual to achieve his or her personal training goals while fulfilling requirements for certification in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine. The first 12 months are devoted primarily to clinical training, with time divided between pulmonary medicine, medical and surgical critical care, chest radiology, anesthesia, and the pulmonary function lab. The remaining requirements for board certification in pulmonary medicine and critical care are arranged to suit individual training goals throughout the second and third years. A number of elective clinical rotations focusing on specialized areas of interest in pulmonary medicine and critical care are also offered. The Division offers multi-disciplinary research training opportunities in several areas of lung biology. Specific features of the clinical training program and the research training program are described in Clinical Training and Research Training. It is emphasized that the training experience is designed to help the trainee develop a scholarly approach to clinical problems and to laboratory or clinical investigation.