The Section of Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago maintains its commitment to educating future clinician-scientists. The Section has one of the largest and longest-standing Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Fellowship Training programs in the U.S. To date, over 65 Infectious Diseases Fellows have completed the program under the leadership and expertise of Drs. Danziger and Rodvold.

Our 2‐year program is unique in that we have combined clinical and research into one program. During the first year, our post‐doctoral program includes 3‐6 months of clinical rotations focusing on infectious diseases in multiple different settings and hospitals. During the second year, an additional 2‐3 months of clinical infectious diseases rotations are included. In addition, each post‐doc participates in a HIV clinic for a half‐day per week during the entire two years. The remaining time ( e.g., 14‐17 months) focuses on scholarly, teaching, and research training. As you can see, we have never taken our post‐docs away from the hospital/clinic settings. In brief, our fellows participate in a wide range of research projects, including in vitro testing of new agents, pharmacokinetics‐pharmacodynamics of older and newer agents, surveys, and clinical trials.

Our program is geared at an “individualized” program for each post‐doc; we are training you in the areas that you see your career going. We can allow this flexibility to occur since we usually have 3‐4 fellows and 1 specialized HIV resident in our program each year. We have trained over 80 post‐docs in the last 30 years; none of their individual programs were similar.

GUIDELINES FOR CLINICAL FELLOWSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM
College of Pharmacy – University of Illinois at Chicago

DEFINITION
A clinical pharmacy fellowship is a directed, highly individualized postgraduate training program designed to prepare the participant to become an independent translational researcher.

OBJECTIVES
A clinical fellowship training program is directed toward developing competency in the scientific research process, including conceptualizing, planning, conducting, and reporting research. Under the close direction and instruction of a qualified researcher-director, the fellow receives a highly individualized learning experience, utilizing the fellow’s research and clinical interests and knowledge needs as a focus for his or her education and training. A fellowship graduate should be capable of functioning as a tenure track faculty member and an independent clinical translational scientist able to successfully compete for competitive research funding.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

Training Program
• Commitment of at least two years of fellowship training and research activities.
• Department of Pharmacy Practice and the fellowship director will provide administrative institutional support for the fellowship training program and research projects.
• Each fellow should participate in formal coursework such as a statistics course and the Pharmacy Practice Clinical Research Seminar Series. Fellows should also consider enrolling in the MS in Clinical and Translational Science Program.
• Department of Pharmacy Practice and the fellowship director will provide the fellow with ready access to laboratory, library, and computer facilities.
• Department of Pharmacy Practice and the fellowship director will provide the fellow the availability of personnel to teach laboratory-based and clinical research skills.
• Department of Pharmacy Practice and the fellowship director will provide the fellow availability of facilities to conduct research in patients, healthy volunteers, and/or animal/organ/tissue models.
• Department of Pharmacy Practice and the fellowship director will provide the fellow with opportunities to provide clinical service.
• Fellowship director will ensure that, through a combination of didactic training and experience, the fellow shall achieve a level of competence consistent with the specific goals and objectives developed by the director of their specialized fellowship.

Fellowship Experiences
• Development of a scientific hypothesis and experimental method(s) to test hypothesis.
• Preparation and submission of a grant proposal.
• Submission of a protocol to the Institutional Review Board.
• Laboratory training related to the field of specialization is highly recommended.
• Experience in statistical analysis of data.
• Preparation and submission of abstracts and manuscripts for publication.
• Formal presentation of research at peer-reviewed scientific meetings.
• Participation in clinical service

Fellowship Applicant Requirements
• Eligible for licensure in Illinois, Pharm.D. plus PGY1 residency training or equivalent experience.
• Individuals with high level of motivation for a research-oriented career.
• Fellowship candidates are expected to possess basic practice skills relevant to the knowledge area of the fellowship.
• Final approval of the qualifications of the applicant and his or her acceptance shall be the responsibility of the director and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice.

Fellowship Director Requirements
• Director must have an active research program and function as an independent researcher
• Director must have a faculty appointment in the Department of Pharmacy Practice