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- The purpose of our fellowship program is twofold.
It's to train physicians in the care of patients with Lyme
and tickborne diseases,
and at the same time to create a cadre of physicians
that are trained not only in excellence in clinical care,
but also in clinical research.
And there's a huge need for this
because of the increasing number of cases.
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The fellowship program is especially important
for Lyme disease
because of the unique aspects of the disease.
We see this training is really training the next generation
of excellent physicians and physician scientists
that will understand the unique aspects of Lyme disease
and will be able to apply those,
not only to the care of patients with Lyme disease,
but to the research future for better understanding,
better diagnosis, better treatment
of patients with Lyme disease.
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It's very important that this fellowship program
is internal medicine-based.
Internal medicine is the core discipline in medicine.
It's a multidisciplinary field by nature.
It doesn't just focus on one organ system.
It understands the interactions of organ systems.
So this advanced program and fellowship
will capitalize on our expertise at Johns Hopkins.
Hopkins has been one of the leaders
in internal medicine training,
literally for over a century in the United States
and in the world.
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One of the benefits of the fellowship program
being at Johns Hopkins is the access
to our incredible faculty.
The fellows will be working with senior mentors
across disciplines, including infectious diseases,
rheumatology, neurology, adolescent medicine,
and the access to these mentors, both clinical mentors,
as well as research mentors is really quite unique
for really any institution in the United States.
The rheumatology division, where we're centered
is the number one rheumatology division
in the United States,
and it's really a model for how to combine excellence
in clinical care with translational clinical research,
understanding how to advance the epidemiology and prevention
in combination with the diagnosis
and treatment of these complex illnesses
that are often misunderstood
and really require advanced training.
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Fellows will have the opportunity
in their second year of the fellowship training program
to pursue a master's of public health
in the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
This is a huge opportunity
to be able to have a paid-for master's degree
sponsored during the second year of their fellowship.
Their second year will really focus
on this research opportunity,
and it will again, combine the collaboration
between the clinical physicians
and mentors in the School of Medicine
with the public health experts
in the School of Public Health.
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Individuals must have trained in the United States
in an approved internship and residency program
in internal medicine or family medicine or neurology.
After graduating from their internship and residency,
applicants that need to be board eligible
and then would enter the fellowship program
after finishing their residency senior year,
in July of the year
that they would then join the fellowship.
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The fellowship program's a two-year program.
The first year focuses on clinical training
and developing of research ideas.
The second year, then, they continue with that clinic,
but then really the majority of the time in the second year
is focused on their research training.
It's focused on a capstone project that they develop
under the mentorship of senior faculty.
So the second year is really a chance
to immerse the fellow's time into research,
to learn techniques of research
and also to develop a project
and to prepare the results for publication.
This will be the springboard, then,
for their future careers if they choose to join a faculty
in research around Lyme and tickborne diseases.
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There'll be two fellows every year in the program.
There'll be a first-year fellow focused on clinical work
and a second-year fellow focused on their research program,
so two fellows every year,
one first-year in one second-year fellow.
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This fellowship program is the unique opportunity
to be on the ground floor of the future of this field.
This is long been waiting
for a major academic medical center
to become involved in this kind of training
that's so desperately needed.
And Hopkins is well-suited and enthusiastic
and excited about really launching
this first fellowship program
that will train the next generation
of academically trained and yet compassionate physicians
that understand the care of Lyme disease
and tickborne infections.
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