Allergy & Immunology Fellowship

Program Goals and Objectives

• To prepare specialists who provide expert medical care for patients with allergic and immunologic disorders and who can serve as consultants, educators, and physician scientists in asthma, allergic disorders, immunologic disorders, and immunodeficiency diseases.
• To provide Allergy and Immunology fellows with cross-training in both pediatric and adult allergic and immunologic disorders because specialists in allergy and immunology, whatever, their primary specialty, are called on to diagnose and treat individuals of all ages.
• To raise awareness of the limitations of present knowledge and to stimulate an attitude of spirited discussion, acquisition, and sharing of new knowledge, and to formulate questions as hypotheses subject to scientific testing.

These goals can be achieved by patient contact, lectures, and/or reading. The fellow will develop skills in skin testing, pulmonary function testing, immunotherapy, and other Allergy and Immunology procedures as described in the Program Requirements for Residency in Allergy and Immunology. The knowledge base presented to fellows will include the etiology, immunopathogenesis, differential diagnosis, therapy, and complications of those Allergy and Immunology diseases listed above.

The didactic and knowledge areas of the program will aim at providing the fellow with the basic knowledge of the following topics:

• Knowledge of aerobiology; cellular and molecular immunobiology; humoral and cellular immunology; the scientific basis of the methodology, indications, and interpretation of laboratory tests and imaging procedures used in the diagnosis and follow up of patients with asthma, allergic, and immunologic and other diseases; preparation and standardization of allergen extracts; means to measure indoor allergens and institution of environmental control measures in the home and other sites; the costs of therapy and diagnostic testing; and the psychological effects of chronic illness.
• Knowledge of applied immunology, to include the principles and techniques of clinical immunology laboratory procedures such as tests for humoral immunity, cellular immunity, neutrophil function, cytokines, immune complexes, cryoprecipitable proteins, total serum complement activity and individual complement components, and histocompatibility.
• Knowledge of the etiology, immunopathogenesis, differential diagnosis, therapy, and complications of those diseases referenced in ACGME Program Requirements.
• Knowledge of controversial or unproven drug or therapeutic techniques in allergy, asthma, allergic disorders, immunologic disorders, and immunodeficiency diseases.