Rheumatology Fellowship Program

Department of Medicine

The University at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Department of Medicine offers comprehensive fellowship training programs Rheumatology. The subspecialty training program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education/American Medical Association. Fellows are expected to spend two years in the program, which provides clinical and research experience subspecialty of rheumatology.

The clinical experience takes place in the following hospitals, affording the trainee the opportunity to see rheumatology in diverse settings:

• Buffalo General Hospital is a 700-bed, University affiliated referral hospital.
• Erie County Medical Center, a modern 600-bed municipal hospital which includes the regional trauma center, burn unit and AIDS center.
• Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a 700-bed general hospital serves as the referral institution for VA hospitals and outpatient clinic in upstate New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. This facility is located across the street from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The educational program provides subspecialty residents with the background to diagnose and manage patients with acute and chronic rheumatic diseases, including those that are life-threatening, and to help them develop investigative skills related to this specialized field. The program ensures that each subspecialty resident has the opportunity to provide continuing responsibility for both acute and chronic rheumatic diseases in order to observe the natural history of the disease process and effectiveness of therapeutic programs. Continuing responsibility for the care of patients with chronic rheumatic diseases is of particular importance.

Clinical education includes direct patient contact in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, clinical care conferences and record reviews. The subspecialty residents participate in the following clinical activities: 1) Rheumatology Continuity Clinic, Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tuesday morning, 2) Connective Tissue Disease Clinic, Erie County Medical Center, Wednesday morning, 3) Rheumatology New Patient Clinic, Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Thursday afternoon, 4) Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Friday afternoon and 5) Autoimmune Diseases Clinic, Buffalo General Hospital, Monday afternoon. Fellows provide consultations for rheumatologic disorders as requested.

Other features of the training programs include:

• Clinical Rheumatology Conference (first three Thursday mornings of each month
• Clinical Rheumatology Conference (first three Thursday mornings of each month
• City-Wide Rheumatology Rounds (fourth Thursday of each month)
• Immunology Core Lecture Series (weekly)
• Post-clinic Conferences (weekly)
• Case Management Conferences (weekly)
• Core Lecture Series for Subspecialty Medicine Fellows (bi-monthly)
• Ward Rounds (routine)
• Broad spectrum of clinical rheumatologic disease problems in distinct hospital settings
• Elective in Sports Medicine, Spine Center, Radiology
• Participation in a pediatric rheumatology clinic

Fellows are provided with a structured research experience sufficient to result in an understanding of the basic principles of study design, performance, analysis and reporting of the assigned area of investigation. Some of the areas of investigation include/have included:

• Role of epidermal lipoxygenases in psoriasis
• Erythropoietin in anemia of rheumatoid arthritis
• Estrogen metabolism in systemic lupus erythymatosus
• Biologic role of lipoxygenases
• Isolation of the Rh antigen