Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program

Fellowship Tracks

The Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship is a three-year program with time equally divided between clinical and scholarly training. The fellowship offers three training pathways: 1) a traditional physician-scientist track, 2) an innovative clinician-educator track, and 3) a new health services research track. Each fellow receives 18 months of clinical training followed by 18 months of scholarly training in biomedical research or medical education. Since the goal of the fellowship is to prepare physicians for a career in academic Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, an additional year of research/scholarly training is available and is strongly encouraged.

Physician-Scientist Track

The Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine offers a three- to four-year fellowship program specifically structured for training tomorrow’s physician leaders in the skills of research ranging from basic to translational to clinical research. Our division is committed to this endeavor because we believe that bench-to-bedside research is essential if the many advances in molecular and cell biology are to be successfully applied to the treatment of human diseases. The Bench to Bedside PCCM Fellowship provides strong clinical training that is aligned with the fellow’s area of basic or clinical research. The program is structured to maximize both the acquisition of clinical skills and research productivity. Features that provide program participants with the foundation for a successful career as a physician-investigator, depending on the fellow’s goals, include funding through T32 mechanisms and optional MPH, MS, and PhD degree programs.

Clinician-Educator Track

The innovative Clinician-Educator Track within the Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship is designed for trainees who aspire to a career as educators in academic medicine. The program’s mission is to cultivate leaders in pulmonary and critical care education through a balance of scholarly development, mentored teaching, clinical expertise, and engagement with the national medical education community.

Fellows in this track are encouraged to think broadly about scholarly productivity, whether through original research, curriculum development, educational media, assessment tools, or other innovations. They are supported in sharing these contributions at national meetings and in disseminating their work across the field. Teaching is central to the track, and fellows receive structured opportunities at multiple levels: leading small groups in the medical school pulmonary course, presenting at internal medicine resident conference, and teaching in the divisional core curriculum. Each session is paired with direct observation and feedback, with progressive responsibility to observe and mentor others as skills advance.

Alongside teaching and scholarship, fellows also build clinical expertise, developing a focused area of specialization that aligns with their educational goals. The program provides individualized clinical training during the latter part of fellowship to deepen this expertise and align it with the fellow’s teaching and scholarly focus.

Finally, fellows participate actively in the national education community, including attendance at the American Thoracic Society International Conference and other relevant meetings. These experiences include presenting scholarly work, engaging with the Section on Medical Education, and pursuing mentorship and committee involvement. Additional opportunities, such as the Association of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Directors annual meeting, are also encouraged to help fellows shape their individual career paths.

Health Services Research Track

The Health Services Research Track is designed to train fellows in health services research including outcomes, implementation, and cost-effectiveness in chronic lung diseases (e.g., asthma, COPD, sleep apnea, lung cancer) and critical illness. The fellow will benefit from interactions with a wide range of research groups in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Public Health as well as other area universities. The fellow will identify a pulmonary mentor and a health services mentor to develop a novel project in epidemiology, population genetics, chronic disease management, health services, health disparities, behavioral sciences, or implementation and dissemination research. Co-mentors can be selected from the Department of Medicine, the VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Critical Care Medicine, or the Graduate School of Public Health including the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health, Biostatistics, and Health Policy and Management. Scholarly work will be supplemented by course work and will include the opportunity for fellows to pursue a master’s in clinical science from the ICRE or a master’s in health policy from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. The fellow will be expected to participate in all relevant research conferences.