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Rheumatology Fellowship

Department of Medicine

S. Louis Bridges, Jr., MD, PhD,  Physician-in-Chief, Chair, Division of Rheumatology
Juliet Aizer, MD, MPH, Program Director

Duration: 3 years (2 years accredited, 1 year non-accredited)
Stipend: $96,216.26 per annum/benefits (subsidized housing also available)
Positions: 3 NYPH accredited positions per year
Location: Hospital for Special Surgery
Affiliated Institutions: Weill Cornell Medicine – NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University
Contact: Flaisa Roberts, 212.774.2189, robertsf@hss.edu

The Rheumatology Fellowship program trains the academic rheumatology leaders of the future, including researchers, master clinicians and educators. Our trainees become clinicians who provide the highest-quality rheumatology care. We strive to instill in all our trainees the practice of lifelong learning, teaching and investigation.

Patient Care and Curriculum

In addition to a rich schedule of didactic lectures and clinical conferences, the fellowship offers extensive clinical exposure in the outpatient rheumatology clinics at HSS and the inpatient consultative service at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The consult service sees 3-5 consults a day from NYPH and MSKCC. First years spend approximately 8 months on the consult service. Inpatients include a diverse range of diseases including SLE and lupus pregnancy, gout, vasculitis, APS, dermatomyositis, immune-therapy related and infectious disease related autoimmunity, among others. Our patient population represents diverse ethnicities, nationalities and socioeconomic statuses.

Clinics, occurring three times a week are situated within the HSS Centers of Excellence including Lupus and APS, Scleroderma, Vasculitis and Myositis, as well as Inflammatory Arthritis. All clinics are followed by clinic conference taught by clinic chiefs from the Centers of Excellence and the various members of our large faculty.

Research

Second and third year fellows devote 60% of their effort to research projects, either bench, clinical or translational, supported by a faculty mentor and a research mentorship committee, led by the Program Director.

Most fellows participating in clinical research during their 2nd and 3rd year also pursue additional training in statistics and epidemiology through the Weill Cornell CTSC either through the certificate or master’s program. Advanced training is available at Columbia in their Master’s program.

Didactics

  • Clinic conferences:
    • Monday Inflammatory Arthritis and Friday Connective Tissue Disease (Lupus, Vasculitis, Myositis and Scleroderma) Clinics are followed by one-hour conferences in which presentation and discussion of patients takes place with faculty from those centers of excellence.
    • New Patient Wednesday Clinic is preceded by an hour-long conference in which fellows discuss new patients, ACR and EULAR guidelines, work on a group QI project, learn MSK ultrasound and learn radiology and other special topics from guest lecturers.
  • Rheumatology Grand Rounds: weekly, invited speakers from institutions across the country with expertise in areas of varied interest.
  • Rheumatology Journal Club: weekly, faculty and fellows from the division take turns presenting peer reviewed literature.
  • Thursday consult “walk rounds”: weekly presentation from the consult service fellow of an interesting patient, bedside learning and review of a topic related to the care of that patient.
  • Dr. Paget rounds: weekly, one-on-one case conference with a Master Clinician for the first years focused on teaching progressive analytic thinking skills.
  • Research in Progress meetings: weekly, where faculty and fellows present ongoing research for peer feedback.

Courses

  • Clinical Introductory course: summer first year, a large assortment of faculty lectures on a variety of rheumatology topics meant to provide an overview of rheumatology to first year trainees.
  • Introduction to Immunology: a half-year longitudinal course with Dr. Fernandez providing an overview of immunology for first year rheumatology fellows.
  • Fellows clinical epidemiology journal club: Brown bag lunches with Drs. Aizer and Mandl teaching critical review of the rheumatology literature to trainees.
  • Musculoskeletal ultrasound: bi- monthly lectures with Dr Berman and practical sessions covering all major joints and ultrasound guided procedure training.
  • Bioskills injection teaching sessions: at least twice yearly cadaver-based injection teaching with Drs. Berman, Fields and Bass.

Application Information

For further information regarding the annual timeline for applying to our Rheumatology Fellowship please visit the ERAS website.

To learn more about the overall rheumatology training program and our current fellows, please visit our HSS Rheumatology Fellowship training page.

Learn about the general application process at HSS.

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