Accreditation

This program fulfills the training requirements as defined by the American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology and is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Certification

After successful completion of this program, fellows will be eligible to take the Interventional Pulmonology Certification Exam offered by the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology.

Program history

The Interventional and Advanced Diagnostic Pulmonology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, will begin in July 2025. We anticipate one fellow will complete this program annually.

Positions

There is one position available on a competitive basis each year in the Interventional and Advanced Diagnostic Pulmonology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

Qualifications

Applicants must be graduates of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited Pulmonary or Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship program.

Also see general admissions requirements.

How to apply

You must apply through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Visit the ERAS website. All applications to Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education programs must include these application materials.

Appointments are made through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). You must register through the NRMP website in addition to applying through ERAS.

Applicants considered for an appointment will be invited to visit Mayo Clinic for a personal interview with the program director and selected faculty. Interviews are conducted in late September and October each year.

The Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship provides intense pulmonary procedural training with the goal of developing future leaders in the field.

The fellowship consists of 12 months of continuous training. Eleven of these months are spent in interventional pulmonology with time divided between the:

• Complex airway procedural
• Diagnostic bronchoscopy and complex pleural procedures
• Inpatient interventional pulmonology/pleural disease consult service
• Outpatient interventional pulmonology/pleural diseases clinic

At any one time with four procedural services functioning simultaneously, there may be several cases presented at once. You will be expected to maintain awareness of which procedures are occurring at any one time and choose to participate in those procedures most beneficial to the fellow.

You will also operate an outpatient clinic daily that is populated with patients from the interventional and pleural services. Access to this clinic is managed internally by the interventional pulmonary staff to ensure a clinic experience that is focused on interventional pulmonology disease states.

Aside from direct patient care, a human cadaver lab and a state-of-the-art medical simulation center are utilized during this fellowship to augment the procedural experience and ensure optimal hands-on training while ensuring patient safety.

One morning per quarter is devoted to faculty-mentored cadaver work with the intent to expose you to basic skills as well as enhanced exposure to new and advanced techniques in preparation for patient contact. A live animal lab is also available and employed to perform research studies, as well as to expose you to hemorrhage control techniques and to gain a better appreciation for the effect of various instruments on live tissue.

This is a high-volume procedural fellowship. The procedural volumes well exceed all requirements for accreditation. Although procedural volumes vary slightly from year to year, it is reasonable to expect the following:

• Rigid bronchoscopy cases: 150-200
• Bronchoscopy cases with cryo/ablative techniques: 150-200 cases
• Pleuroscopy/Medical thoracoscopy: 25 cases
• Percutaneous tracheostomy: 20-30 cases
• Pleural catheter placement: 90-110 cases
• Robotic Assisted Bronchoscopy: 300-450 cases
• Image-guided chest tube placement: 50-100 cases
• Airway stenting: 50-80 cases

In addition, you can expect to have robust exposure to and gain expertise in the use of laser, argon plasma coagulation, cryotherapy (to include cryobiopsy), electrocautery, balloon and rigid dilation and endobronchial valve placement among other procedures.

The procedural group also performs in excess of 2,500 diagnostic and therapeutic flexible bronchoscopies, 600-800 endobronchial ultrasound-directed procedures, and multiple thoracenteses (to include thoracenteses performed with the use of pleural manometry) yearly.

All procedures and patient encounters will be supervised by the responsible consultant regardless of the simplicity of the procedure and experience of the fellow. Early in the training year supervision may include the immediate presence of the consultant, however as the training year progresses supervision may become less rigid thus allowing you to progress toward more independent practice.

Call frequency

You will cover the inpatient interventional pulmonology/pleural disease service along with overnight call from home one weekday per week when the general pulmonary fellow takes their day off. You will have responsibility for the disposition of outpatients after interventional procedures and are expected to round on all inpatients after interventional procedures. Occasionally, this may require brief rounds on the weekends. If you wish to be involved in weekend and night coverage for interventional procedures, that is possible on request, although weekend and night interventions are uncommon.

All duty responsibilities are maintained within the guidelines of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Moonlighting

Moonlighting is not allowed as it does not contribute to interventional pulmonary experience. The Interventional and Advanced Diagnostic Pulmonology Fellowship is a fully funded fellowship designed for one year of focused training and research.

The Interventional and Advanced Diagnostic Pulmonology Fellowship didactics consist of forty weekly sessions aimed at setting the essential medical knowledge of a well-rounded interventional pulmonologist and evolving into a more complex critical analysis of challenging cases that promote progress on a trajectory to autonomous practice in the IP subspecialty. Overall, the program didactics consists of nine blocks. Each block contains four to five sessions of 45 minutes each. Learn more about didactic training and the specific goals and objectives of each block. Please note that the following educational curriculum is subject to change

Interventional Pulmonology Basics 1 (Block 1)

Interventional Pulmonology Basics 2 (Block 2)

Interventional Pulmonology Procedures 1 (Block 3)

Interventional Pulmonology Procedures 2 (Block 4)

Interventional Pulmonology Procedures 3 (Block 5)

Interventional Pulmonology Pathology 1 (Block 6)

Interventional Pulmonology Pathology 2 (Block 7)

Interventional Pulmonology Supplemental (Block 8)

Interventional Pulmonology Board Review Preparation (Block 9)

The Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic is a highly integrated, collaborative department of physicians. Virtually all subspecialties of medicine are represented among our department's faculty members, many of whom are international leaders in their respective fields.

The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine is regularly recognized as one of the premier divisions of its kind in the United States and is responsible for many innovations and advancements in the care of patients with respiratory diseases.

The current pulmonary procedural group consists of four board-certified interventional pulmonologists, two additional advanced endoscopists, three additional pleural disease experts, and one dual-appointment thoracic surgeon.

Mayo Clinic has a long history of interventional pulmonary practice dating back to the 1950s, and current faculty members include past-presidents and board members of the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology, committee chairs and executive committee members of the World Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology, and committee chairs and committee members of the American College of Chest Physicians.

The Mayo pulmonary procedural group also benefits from a very strong collegial relationship with the Mayo divisions of thoracic surgery and interventional radiology. You can expect to work very closely with members of these groups during their training.

	Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy, M.D. Program Director Dr. Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy is an esteemed interventional pulmonologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. He specializes in minimally invasive thoracic procedures, utilizing advanced technologies like robotics. Dr. Sebastian's expertise includes treating severe lung conditions such as COPD, asthma, lung cancer, and tracheobronchomalacia. He holds an M.D. from Salvador University in Argentina, with further training at the University of Texas-Houston, University of Florida, and University of Heidelberg. Dr. Fernandez-Bussy leads Mayo Clinic's Procedural Innovation Team, has numerous awards, and is a visiting professor at Heidelberg University.
	David Abia Trujillo, M.D., M.B. Dr. Abia Trujillo is a renowned interventional pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. He completed his medical training in Mexico, followed by specialized training at Morristown Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Abia-Trujillo focuses on advanced COPD, central airway obstruction, and pleural disease, employing various interventional techniques like bronchial thermoplasty and lung biopsies. His accolades include the 2022 Mayo Clinic Experience Top Performer Award and the 2022 Catalyst Award.
	Linh Vu, M.D. Dr. Linh H. Vu is an accomplished interventional pulmonologist currently practicing at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. With a strong educational foundation, Dr. Vu earned her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency, followed by a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship, at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. At Mayo Clinic, Dr. Vu specializes in advanced diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including robotic bronchoscopy. Her work is part of Mayo Clinic's commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology with personalized patient care.