The one-year Infectious Diseases Transplant Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, is designed to prepare physicians with prior training in general infectious diseases for a career in transplantation medicine. The training includes clinical and research components.

The Infectious Diseases Transplant Fellowship offers you:

• Preparation for a successful career in transplant infectious diseases in a group practice or academic center where transplants are performed
• In-depth exposure to a wide array of common and opportunistic infections after solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
• Participation in a multidisciplinary team and exposure in collaborative approach to managing transplant recipients
• Clinical, translational and basic science research opportunities in the field of transplant infectious diseases

In this post-subspecialty fellowship, you acquire comprehensive knowledge and competence in managing infectious disease-related issues in bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation and solid-organ transplantation, including liver, kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and vascularized composite tissue transplantation.

This fellowship is offered at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, a medical center that performs more than 800 transplantation procedures annually. As a fellow, you participate in the care of transplant candidates and recipients, including:

• Pre-transplantation assessment of infection risk and defining prevention strategies (prophylaxis, preemptive therapy, surveillance and vaccination)
• Management of infections in transplant candidates, including infections related to left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) as bridge to heart transplantation
• Oversight of infectious diseases occurring at the time of the transplant procedure
• Consultation for the management of opportunistic infectious diseases following transplantation
• Collaboration with transplant surgery and medical providers in the multidisciplinary approach to infection prevention and treatment

You are required to participate in a clinical or basic science research project under faculty supervision. At the end of the research training, you will be conversant with basic aspects of clinical or bench research. Additional training in research is available for interested fellows.

Program history

The Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Minnesota began in 1961. Since its inception, that program has evolved to include several specialty rotations — including transplantation, intensive care, orthopedics, cardiovascular medicine, and travel and tropical medicine — along with a robust research component.

In 2000, the Division of Infectious Diseases added a new training program — Infection Diseases Transplant Fellowship — to address the need and the growing demand for this specialty care. The program expanded in 2007 to recruit two infectious diseases board-certified or eligible candidates for transplant fellowship training. We anticipate that two trainees will complete this program annually.