Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Fellowship Program

Our program offers exposure to all facets of pulmonary-critical care, including exposure to ECMO, interventional pulmonology, lung transplant, and trauma medicine to name a few. Plus, our faculty are a team of dedicated teachers and mentors. 

As a tertiary care hospital, we serve a large underserved community. As such, fellows can make a real impact on patients’ lives while also gaining experience with a variety of clinical pathology that will prepare you for future endeavors.

We also pride ourselves on ensuring clinical competency at the time of graduation. We have developed outstanding longitudinal curriculums in point-of-care ultrasound, mechanical ventilation, pulmonary-function test interpretation, and much more. Upon graduation, you will be ready not only to practice pulmonary-critical care medicine, but will also be able to successfully run a busy clinical service.

The pulmonary and critical care training program curriculum is structured so that fellows can build their clinical experiences on a solid understanding of science and evidence-based medicine. The curriculum sets goals and objectives for each year of training that promote progressively independent clinical experiences and teaching in the latter years.

Fellows are generally free of clinical duties during the first month of training so that they can devote this time to building a strong educational foundation. During the first month of fellowship, fellows take part in an interactive education block with other fellows from the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area (NIH, Georgetown University, Howard University, George Washington University, University of Maryland, Walter Reed National Naval Medical Center and John Hopkins University). Faculty from all these institutions deliver didactics, and fellows are given hands-on experience in simulation labs.

Through didactic lectures, seminars, and demonstrations, fellows are taught the principles of evidence-based medicine and fundamental concepts in pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine, mechanical ventilation, non-invasive ventilation, and pulmonary function testing. Fellows also develop procedural competence as they rotate through the anesthesia service and vascular access service and also attend various workshops on radiology, echocardiography, bronchoscopy, and central lines. Several workshops offer unique learning opportunities through the use of computerized mannequins (patient-simulation exercises) and procedure dummies (for central lines, intubation, etc).

MedStar Washington Hospital Center is the primary training venue for our fellowship. Annually, this facility logs more than 40,000 admissions, 93,000 emergency department visits, and 406,000 outpatient visits. The breadth and complexity of cases vary from the common to the rare, providing fellows with a comprehensive experience.

Fellows also undertake clinical rotations and may pursue research opportunities at the NIH. Fellows spend one month in the intensive care unit at NIH, treating a unique patient population with rare or complicated diseases enrolled in research protocols. Fellows will enhance their experience in advanced lung disease and pulmonary transplantation at the Inova Fairfax Hospital, cystic fibrosis at the Children's National Medical Center, interventional bronchoscopy at Inova Fairfax Hospital, and sleep medicine at the D.C. VA Medical Center. 

Regularly scheduled conferences are an integral part of the training program. The conferences cover a wide variety of topics and support the fellows' clinical experiences.

Within a typical four-week block, this will include one: 

Two:

Plus weekly:

Years 1 and 2:

Year 3:

In addition, all PCCM fellows have at least one clinic rotation in which they rotate through various outpatient pulmonary specialty clinics, including: 

Our faculty and fellows have been very productive with a large number of publications every year. Below is a list of select recent publications.

Antimicrobial de-escalation in critically ill patients: a position statement from a task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Critically Ill Patients Study Group (ESGCIP).

Tabah A, Bassetti M, Kollef MH, Zahar JR, Paiva JA, Timsit JF, Roberts JA, Schouten J, Giamarellou H, Rello J, De Waele J, Shorr AF, Leone M, Poulakou G, Depuydt P, Garnacho-Montero J. Intensive Care Med. 2020 Feb;46(2):245-265.

Third Time’s a Charm: COVID-19 Testing Issues. 
Mahmood SN, Talish M, Wallach D, King F, Ramdeen K, Woods CJ, Ruiz M. Infectious Diseases (Lond) 2020.

COVID-19: Associated Morbidity and Mitigation Strategies. 
Mahmood SN, Woods CJ, Chan C. Infectious Diseases (Lond) 2020

Smoking-associated interstitial lung disease: update and review.
Dawod YT, Cook NE, Graham WB, Madhani-Lovely F, Thao C.Dawod YT, et al. Expert Rev Respir Med. 2020 May 22:1-10.

Silver Stool.
Shehadeh M, Oweis E. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 16;383(3):261.