Letter from the Program Director

Thank you for your interest in the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program at West Virginia University! Our program’s primary goal is to provide a welcoming environment with a balance of clinical care, education, and research opportunities to prepare you to become a compassionate and competent clinician in Infectious Diseases.

Our smaller program size of 4 fellows and 9 faculty members fosters an atmosphere of collegiality and collaboration that is known to WVU. Our fellows participate in monthly ID division meetings for feedback on rotation and curriculum structure and need for changes. In addition to our scheduled conferences, our program curriculum includes unique learning modules for additional certification: the WVU Tropical Medicine Course, the WVCTSI Research Academy, the Teaching Scholars Program and the IDSA Stewardship Curriculum.

Our program consists of 4-week block rotations including inpatient consult rotations, required block rotations, such as Microbiology and Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infection Control, electives and research. In addition, fellows have weekly half-day HIV clinic in the Ryan White funded WVU Positive Health clinic and weekly half-day Infectious Disease clinic seeing hepatitis C, discharge follow ups, and referrals from community. Across the two years, fellows have 13 inpatient consultation rotations, including 1 month of Pediatric ID and 1 month of Solid Organ Transplant at University of Pittsburgh.

The primary teaching site is West Virginia University Hospital, a 690-bed state of the art facility including two MICU services, Neurocritical Care service, Trauma/Surgical ICU, Cardio-Vascular ICU and a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. WVUH is a quaternary referral center for West Virginia and also provides care for patients from western Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania. Thus, fellows are exposed to a diversity of patient pathology including immunocompromised hosts (such as solid organ and bone marrow transplant) and infections associated with injection drug use. Unique to WVUH is the Inpatient Infusion Service where patients with IDU and need for long-term antibiotics are housed and treated for both their infection and substance use disorder on a collaborative inpatient unit with ID, Behavioral Health, and Addiction Specialists.

In addition, we have a very well-established Global Health Program at WVU. At WVU, the medical students and internal medicine residents have robust Global Health tracks with international rotations in Guatemala, Ghana, Nepal, Fiji, Brazil, and Uganda. Our ID fellows interested in global health can pursue a Global Health Concentration which involves completing the WVU Tropical Medicine Course and a global health elective.

Morgantown is consistently ranked among the “best small cities to live.” Outdoor activities include skiing, hiking, boating, rock climbing, mountain biking, and so much more. There is a diverse offering of cultural, dining and entertainment opportunities. It is also an ideal place to raise a family with affordable housing and an excellent school system. We are only a one-hour drive to Pittsburgh and just over 3 hours from Baltimore/Washington DC area. Learn about Your Morgantown Experience and begin planning your future.

I appreciate your interest in our program, and I look forward to meeting you in the future.

Sincerely,
Rebecca Reece, MD
Program Director, Infectious Diseases