Our fellowship's didactic and research training offer a variety of learning opportunities.

Didactic training

Mayo Clinic's Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship has an extensive didactic training program that includes:

• Core curriculum lecture series during the first several months of fellowship
• Weekly clinical case conference involving current patients on the pediatric infectious diseases hospital service
• Weekly case conference held jointly with the adult infectious diseases service
• Weekly core curriculum for transplants
• Weekly Pediatric Grand Rounds
• Monthly Infection and Immunity Club dinner meeting with renowned invited speakers
• Monthly global health lecture series "Travel the World"
• Monthly pediatric subspecialty fellowship lecture series
• Monthly primary immunodeficiency conference
• Quarterly pediatric infectious diseases journal club

See the sample conference schedule to view a list of lecture series, case conferences, and other educational sessions available for fellows.

In addition, the three-day St. Jude/Pediatric Infectious Disease Society (PIDS) Transplant and Immunocompromised Hosts symposium and Research Conference is required once during the fellowship. The Pediatric HIV/AIDS training course is also required once during the fellowship.

There are also various certifications provided through the CDC and SHEA which are also required.

Research training

At Mayo Clinic, we believe research experience is integral to the training of an academic pediatric infectious diseases specialist.

The Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences course Principles and Practices of Pediatric Research meets for one hour every other week from January to June. This course is required for first-year pediatric infectious diseases fellows to prepare them for their research years.

You have the opportunity to choose between two tracks:

• Patient-oriented or epidemiologic research. If you are interested in patient-oriented or epidemiologic research, you are encouraged to complete a postdoctoral master's degree through the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS). Epidemiologic research has focused on community-acquired respiratory infections, nosocomial infections (including Clostridium difficile), and tuberculosis.
• Laboratory-based research. If you are interested in laboratory-based research, you can choose a mentor based on your particular research interests. Major areas of laboratory-based research include molecular determinants of HIV disease progression, genetic determinants of immune response to vaccines, and the development of new diagnostic microbiologic tests.

Your research will lead to the development of a presentation at a national meeting and the preparation of a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This qualifies you to sit for the Subboard of Pediatric Infectious Diseases examination through the American Board of Pediatrics.