How to contact us
BRIAN PEDERSEN, M.D
Associate Program Director
AMANDA WILLIAMSON
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0912 |
Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine offers a Rheumatology Fellowship, which is part of the diverse and renowned family of the
UC San Diego Graduate Medical Education.
While we offer 3 different Training Tracks, a 2-year ACGME-accredited training cycle for ABIM board eligibility is done by all trainees. Offered Training Tracks are as follows:
- Clinical Practice or Academic Clinician Scholar 2 Year Training Track
- Academic Rheumatology 3 Year Clinical-Translational Research Training Track
- Academic Rheumatology 3 Year Basic Research Training Track
The partitioning of time between clinical and research experience will depend on the interests and needs of the candidate. A combined Rheumatology and Allergy program is also offered. Fellowship applicants must be on track to have completed three years of internal medicine residency (PGY 1-3) by the time the Rheumatology training program is to commence.
All Training Tracks feature highly diverse clinical inpatient and outpatient experiences, with outpatient continuity clinics at 4 different sites (UC San Diego Hillcrest, UC San Diego La Jolla, VA San Diego, Rady Children’s Hospital Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic). Inpatient rotations, include rheumatology, consult services at the UC, San Diego health, hospitals, and the VA. Elective rotations through endocrine/metabolic bone disease, dermatology/rheumatology, rheumatology/nephrology lupus, and orthopedic clinics, as well as elective in advanced/interventional musculoskeletal ultrasound are routinely offered during the second year of training. Musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic, formal didactic ultrasound curriculum and
musculoskeletal ultrasound workshop are core assignments and can be supplemented by USSONAR training for interested trainees.
Conferences include weekly
grand rounds and case conferences, and journal clubs. Rheumatology teaching core curriculum consist of summer
“boot camp” conferences for orienting the arriving first year trainees to the field, and a total of 24 month rheumatic disease clinical and pathophysiology curriculum. Since its inception, our program has maintained First-time Pass Board rate of 100%.
Clinical and basic research training choices are particularly diverse, and are supported by NIH-funded T32 training program in rheumatic diseases (Monica Guma, MD., PhD as the Principal Investigator), and the large Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) award to UC San Diego, with Gary Firestein MD as the Principal Investigator. Choices include clinical-translational research in immune modulation, quantitative genomics and bioinformatics, clinical epidemiology, and outcomes research, as well as clinical trial methodology training at the Center for Innovative Therapy based of
UCSD ACTRI, which also hosts the headquarters of our training program.
Additional formalized training in clinical and translational research, as well as epidemiology and health services research applicable to Rheumatology, can be obtained through the
NIH-funded CREST program at UC San Diego which is offered through ACTRI. As a component of the CREST program, trainees have the opportunity to obtain either a Masters of Advanced Studies (MAS) or a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree in conjunction with San Diego State University School of Public Health.
Clinical and basic research opportunities in innate and adaptive immunity, inflammation biology, and translational immune modulation also are particularly diverse, and are offered by our own
faculty, and more than 40 different mentors at UC San Diego (in Rheumatology, Pharmacology, Genetics, Immunology, Biology) and from closely affiliated La Jolla research institutions (including La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI), Sanford-Burnham Institute, and the J Craig Venter Institute, and others.
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Current and former fellows share their stories
Application
To apply for a Rheumatology fellowship, you must apply through
ERAS, the Electronic Residency Application Service, a service that transmits residency applications, 3 letters of recommendation, Dean's Letters/MSPE, transcripts, and other supporting credentials from applicants and medical schools to Fellowship, Osteopathic Internship and Residency programs using the Internet.
UC San Diego Graduate Medical Education