Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program


The Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Kentucky is an ACGME-accredited 3-year program with a total of 9 Fellows (3 per year). A total of 19 full-time Faculty, 6 critical care nurse practitioners, research assistants, and a full administrative staff, provide support to this program across three Hospitals: University of Kentucky Medical Center, VA Administration Hospital, and Good Samaritan Hospital.

The 36 months of fellowship training are divided into a minimum of 12 months of ICU and 12 months of pulmonary clinical work. The other 12 months are divided (the actual assignments vary from Fellow to Fellow) into research, selectives, and elective rotations.

The Fellowship Program offers critical care training in a totally closed unit model, caring for patients of extremely high degree of acuity. Our Fellows are trained in all aspects of critical care, including management of the difficult airway, placement of chest tubes (large and small bore), percutaneous tracheostomy, all modalities of continuous and intermittent renal replacement therapy, mechanical ventilation in different modalities (including high-frequency oscillation and extracorporeal heart-lung support), and nutritional support (both enteral and parenteral). During the Fellowship, training in bedside ultrasound examination is also taught and practiced, including US examination of the chest, abdomen, vascular structures, and cardiac imaging. To meet the ACGME requirements for non-medical ICU experience (3 months are required) the Fellows can choose to have rotations in Cardiothoracic ICU, Neurosurgical Critical Care, Trauma ICU, CCU, and/or Pediatric ICU.

The core pulmonary portion of the Fellowship consists of extensive in and out-patient consultation services, and a longitudinal experience in a personal (for each Fellow) continuity clinic. In addition, rotations through specialty clinics like Multidisciplinary Lung Cancer Clinic, Cystic Fibrosis, Sleep Medicine, etc., also occur on certain rotations throughout the training. As part of the pulmonary training all fellows are trained in fiber optic bronchoscopy procedures (including EBUS and fluorescence endoscopy), and have formal training and direct responsibility in all aspects of Pulmonary Function Testing, including inhalational challenges and integrated cardio-pulmonary exercise testing.

During their training in Pulmonary Medicine all Fellows have primary involvement in the advanced lung disease/lung transplant Service, where Fellows have primary responsibility in caring for patients with very severe and/or end-stage lung diseases of many different types. As part of this experience, the fellows will be trained and will be directly involved in organ procurement for transplantation, evaluation of potential transplant candidates, management of short and long-term post-transplant patients, etc. They will also have the opportunity to participate in innovative and experimental therapies like ambulatory extra-corporeal lung support ("ambulatory ECMO"). Participation with Thoracic Surgery Faculty in rigid bronchoscopy and endoscopic laser therapy, as well as airway stenting, is also a part of this experience.

During the fellowship experience, strong emphasis is placed on research activities. Fellows have the opportunity to engage in diverse areas of pulmonary and critical care clinical and basic research. Fellows are given the opportunity to spend research time in the some of the active areas of funded research within the division. Examples of some of the opportunities available include: epidemiology and outcomes of patients with COPD, use of autologous dendritic cells in lung cancer vaccine development, evaluation of respiratory muscle dysfunction in critically ill patients and the mechanisms of organ failure and death from sepsis, clinical and translational research in sarcoidosis and interstitial lung diseases, and use of nanotechnology in the development of aerosolized immunosuppressant medications to prevent chronic allograft dysfunction in lung transplant patients.
 

  • Apply for one of our Fellowship positions in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine On-line.

  • For more information on the Fellowship Program, please email gjpark2@uky.edu.