Welcome

Many trainees graduating from an infectious disease residency program are looking for additional training in specific areas or patient populations not represented at their home institution including:

1. Immunocompromised hosts such as bone marrow transplantation, CART and HIV
2. Surgical Infections in people who inject drugs such as brain abscess and endovascular infections.
3. Infections in people with addictions including viral infections and specifically co-managing addiction in order to successfully complete treatment for infection.
4. Burn or trauma patients.
5. Antimicrobial stewardship.

Focused training in subspecialized areas of infectious disease will allow fellows to further hone their clinical and research skills, and to improve their chances in a competitive job marked for academic infectious disease positions. Fellows may pick up to 3 areas of focused interest to concentrate on. Some areas of focused interest require clinical exposure whereas others, such as Antimicrobial Stewardship will integrate multiple clinical settings.

Clinical rotations will offer the option of prolonged (a minimum of 2 blocks) periods of sub specialization. An academic fellow at the HGH, for example, would concentrate on surgical infections in people who use drugs and not on the breadth of consults that an infectious diseases resident is expected to see. The fellow would act as a coattending while still having supervision by an experienced faculty. This role allows them to practice their own decision making, manage and contribute to the teaching of more junior trainees.

For foreign-trained trainees, the fellowship is a great (lived) experience to learn the differences between their own and the Canadian Healthcare system.

The second key component of the training is research which will make up for roughly 50% of the time. The fellow will be actively engaged in ongoing projects, optimally running their own (sub-) project, with the expectation of at least one abstract and one manuscript resulting from this work over one year. Teaching as part of the research rotations will cover the basics of research design, biostatistics, and how to write a manuscript.

The fellow will participate in regional infectious disease and IIDR rounds (weekly on Wednesday) including presenting their own research. The fellow will attend infectious diseases or medical microbiology academic sessions specific to their area(s) of focus- for example those on burns, HIV or the immunocompromised. The fellow is welcome to attend other AHD sessions if interest and time allows.

Certification Outcome

The successful completion of the fellowship will grant a Fellowship McMaster Certification.

Entry Requirements

Applicants are required to have completed training in Infectious Diseases and have an interest in Infectious Disease research.

Application Deadline

12 Months prior to start date