Clinical Training
Faculty of the Division are heavily involved in the education of physician assistants, students, residents and clinical fellows. Four clinical fellows in Infectious Diseases receive clinical training in a two-year ACGME-accredited training program on the inpatient services at the LAC+USC Medical Center, USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital, and USC University Hospital, and for outpatient care in HCC II and the Rand Schrader HIV Clinic. In addition, faculty of the Division mentor and supervise three to four house officers (PGL 2 and 3 residents) and two to three USC and occasionally external medical students per month on the Infectious Diseases consultation services. In the Rand Schrader HIV Clinic, the faculty, in association with members of the Department of Family Medicine, operate an educational program (Pacific AIDS Educational Training Center grant) sponsored by HRSA for community physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and nurses involved in the primary care of patients with HIV. Faculty of the Division also participate in the Keck School of Medicine annual postgraduate education program.

Conferences
A number of didactic and interactive conferences are provided each week and are facilitated by Infectious Diseases faculty. Clinical fellows also present cases, discuss journal articles and provide disease overviews at a number of the conferences. Student and resident trainees rotating on the LAC+USC Medical Center consult service also attend these conferences.

Infectious Diseases Core Curriculum Lecture Series is held weekly (Monday mornings 8:00-9:00) and is a vital component of the didactic portion of the total educational program. This series covers a large number of distinct and important topics over a 2-year cycle, encompassing the essential principles for the practice of infectious diseases. These lectures are generally given by the Infectious Diseases faculty. Each fellow is expected to give two lectures per year, which are facilitated by the Infectious Diseases faculty. The lectures also serve as a platform for hypotheses that may provide the underpinning for fellow and faculty investigations that expand the knowledge base in this ever-changing specialty.

The weekly Infectious Diseases Case Conference is held on Wednesday mornings from 8:30-9:30 and consists of the presentation of two clinical cases each week (usually one from the LAC+USC Medical Center Consult Service and one from the USC University Hospital Teaching Service), each selected by the fellows on the respective consultation services. The fellow may present the case or assign this learning experience to an internal medicine resident or medical student. The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Service selects at least one case per month for presentation at the Conference. The format consists of the case presentation, followed by a discussion of diagnostic and therapeutic issues by another fellow, selected by virtue of his or her unfamiliarity with the case. This lively conference usually has 30-40 attendees, including USC faculty, trainees, Rand Schrader Clinic providers, and community practitioners of both pediatric and adult infectious diseases.

Infectious Diseases Grand Rounds are held on the second Friday of every month with guest speakers selected and hosted by the Infectious Diseases faculty. These lectures are frequently delivered by visiting faculty of national stature in their respective areas of expertise.

Clinicopathologic Conference occurs on the fourth Friday of each month. The clinical fellow on the LAC+USC Medical Center Consultation Service selects and organizes the conference with cases and topics chosen in conjunction with the Division Chief, Program Director and the attending for the month on the LAC+USC Medical Center Consultation Service. Faculty members from other specialties and subspecialties are invited to discuss significant diagnostic elements of and review pathologic slides, microbiologic specimens, radiographic imaging, retinal photographs, and/or their specialty contribution to the case patient’s care. A member of the ID Division Faculty is asked to provide a wrap-up of salient diagnostic, management, or treatment issues at the end of the conference.

Infectious Diseases Journal Club is held monthly. Two articles are selected by the fellows as approved by an ID faculty facilitator for discussion and are presented for critical review at each of the sessions. A fellow is assigned as the primary discussant for each of the two articles, presenting a critical analysis of study hypotheses, study design, statistical methods, results, appropriateness of the authors’ conclusions, and applicability of the results. The emphasis is on critical review of all aspects of the reported studies for potential flaws in the design or analysis and introduction of potential bias that could affect the conclusions drawn.

Combined Pulmonary-Infectious Diseases Teaching Conference is held once a month on the third Tuesday from 8:30-9:30 a.m. Similar to Infectious Diseases Case Conference, the format consists of preparation and presentation of two cases as unknowns, one selected by the Infectious Disease fellow assigned to the conference, and the other presented by the Pulmonary fellow. Faculty from the Infectious Diseases and Pulmonary/Critical Care Divisions attend the conference and participate in the case discussions. A short review of the relevant current literature generally follows each case presentation.

A series of three HIV Conferences are held at the Rand Schrader Clinic, facilitated by Infectious Diseases faculty based at the clinic. This stimulating sequence of discussions alternates among the following themes each month:

• HIV Management and Resistance Conference
• Primary Case in HIV Medicine (e.g., management of hypertension, CAD, diabetes)
• HIV Co-Infections (e.g., tuberculosis, hepatitis B or C, human papilloma virus)

These conferences are facilitated by Dr. Cadden, Medical Director of the Rand Schrader Clinic, Dr. Jens Kort, and Dr. Michael Dube, Associate Medical Director. The conferences are attended by faculty from the ID Division, Rand Schrader Clinic physicians, general internists from the Department of Medicine, faculty psychiatrists, physician assistants, social workers and a number of clinic nurses. The ID fellows along with students and house officers rotating on the ID service are required to attend these teaching activities.

Intercity Infectious Diseases Rounds: This is a long-standing 2-hour monthly meeting of academic infectious diseases specialty, trainees, and allied health professionals that rotates amongst the different participant hospitals (USC, Harbor-UCLA, Harbor City Kaiser, St. Mary’s Medical Center, Long Beach VA, Torrance Memorial Hospital). The format of the conference is for the host institution fellows to present interesting and instructive cases (usually 4-5) in infectious diseases as unknowns. The guest faculty are then asked to provide a differential diagnosis, diagnostic workup, and treatment plan. This is followed by a review of the microbiology, histopathology, special imaging, etc., and then a short didactic presentation by the fellow describing salient features or important aspects of the case.

Combined Adult-Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference: A new bimonthly conference (established this year by Drs. Kort and Sattler) on current clinical and translational research topics of USC adult and pediatric Infectious Diseases faculty and affiliated institutions such as the City of Hope National Medical Center. This conference is also integrated into the ACGME-teaching curriculum for the ID fellows.