The Bug Club, Infectious Diseases AOC

Goals & Learning Objectives

The goal of the IDAOC is to promote interest in infectious diseases through engaging medical students in various activities throughout the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and at UPMC. Since the study of infectious diseases encompasses multiple specialties in the health sciences, students will have multiple options for conferences and meetings to attend in various departments, including Medicine, Pediatrics, and OB/Gyne.

1. Understand the myriad of career pathways available to an ID specialist and different training requirements for each.
2. Understand the role of infectious diseases as a modern paradigm for meeting social, scientific, and geopolitical challenges.
3. Understand the unprecedented challenge of antimicrobial resistance, infectious disease prevention, and the unmet need for more ID specialists.
4. Learn and apply a set of research tools to a pressing question in ID.
5. Understand the landscape of STIs in the US.

Activities

Weekly ID Grand Rounds and Case Conferences. The ID Division in the Department of Medicine holds weekly grand rounds every Thursday. Presentations include case discussions with review of literature, research in progress of both infectious diseases fellowship trainees and faculty, and state of the art presentations by invited guests. The ID Division in the Department of Pediatrics also holds similar conferences every Friday while the Reproductive ID Division holds monthly conferences.

Weekly HIV Conference and ID Journal Club. HIV conferences discuss core principles in HIV management and diagnostics accompanied by multidisciplinary discussions involving social, psychological, and sexual/reproductive health of people living with HIV. Management of coinfections with Hepatitis B and C, and sexually transmitted diseases together with preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are also discussed. In addition, “Genotype Conferences” are held to help HIV care providers manage patients with multiple resistance mutations. At ID Journal Club, fellows present recently published high-impact papers on various areas of infectious diseases.

Other Clinical Case Conferences. In the Transplant ID teleconference, interesting cases in solid organ and bone marrow transplant from major transplant centers (UPMC, Cleveland Clinic, UNC, University of Sao Paolo, Mayo Clinic) are presented and discussed. The Tropical INFECTIOUS DISEASES AREA OF CONCENTRATION Medicine teleconference presents highly interesting cases in the Philippine General Hospital/University of the Philippines. The Pediatric Infectious Disease division also has weekly fellows teaching conferences on Tuesday mornings that cover a broad range of topics related to Pediatric Infectious Disease. There are also monthly Journal Club presentations which are interspersed with Research in Progress seminars, both presented by Pediatric Infectious Disease fellows and faculty.

Seminar Series. The Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (IDM) at the Graduate School of Public Health and the Center for Vaccine Research both hold regular seminar series where faculty and invited guests present the latest updates on ongoing research and cutting edge science related to infection biology.

Clinical Rotations. Students will be able to do rotations with the different infectious diseases clinical services. These include: general adult and pediatric ID, surgical ID, transplant ID, endocarditis service, VA ID, Reproductive ID Integrated Life Sciences, and outpatient ID at the Center for Care of Infectious Diseases which has the general, transplant, and travel ID clinics, the HIV/PrEP clinic, the Cdiff/Fecal Microbiota Transplant clinic, and the Tele-ID clinic. In addition, students may be able to rotate with Infection Control and Prevention team at either Presbyterian/Montefiore Hospitals or the VA, and with the Antibiotic Management Program.

Requirements

• Sign up/apply by start of the 2nd year (students are also welcome to join in their 1st year)
• Attend at least 1 ID-related conference/meeting per month (choose from the list above)
• Attend quarterly IDAOC meetings
• Do a ID-related clinical rotation (Medicine, Pediatric, or OB/Gyne)
• Work on a ID-related research project (preferably as part of their Longitudinal Research Project)

Certificate & Awards

Mentorship

Steering Committee

• Anthony Lentsher, PhD  
• Catherine Chappell, MD 
• Matthew Culyba, MD PhD  
• Bernard Macatangay, MD  
• Anita McElroy, MD PhD   
• Peter Veldkamp, MD MS   
• Alex Viehman, MD

Administrative Coordinators:
• Sarah Glenn – glennse@upmc.edu
• Gabriella Merritt – gmm76@pitt.edu