Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

All our fellows complete three years of clinical training, which primarily occurs at the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, a public hospital serving the residents of Cook County. The following are some of the rotations that are offered:

Medical Intensive Care Unit

The hospital has 82 adult critical care beds divided between six units. The medical intensive care unit has 22 beds. The fellows supervise medical students, interns and residents; assess and triage admissions to the MICU; and lead the cardiopulmonary arrest team in the hospital. Our fellows are trained to be proficient in all aspects critical care, such as airway management and intubations, advanced ventilator management, central and arterial line placements, critical care ultrasound, and resuscitation.

Pulmonary Consult Service

The fellow in consultation with an attending manages our inpatient pulmonary consult service. We offer a wide range of pulmonary procedures, and our fellows routinely perform basic and advanced bronchoscopies, as well as pleural procedures. In addition to basic bronchoscopies, our graduates are expected to be proficient in EBUS-TBNA. Fellows also have the opportunity to learn Radial EBUS and to participate in complex surgical cases in conjunction with Cardiothoracic Surgery. Our fellows get ample exposure in managing pleural disease, and placing small and large bore chest tubes, along with tunneled pleural catheters, ultrasound-directed pleural biopsies. 

Physiology

Our pulmonary physiology laboratory is outstanding and offers the full range of resting, exercise and bronchoprovocation studies, as well as a superb pulmonary rehabilitation program. The fellows will learn how to interpret spirometry, lung volumes, arterial blood gases, bronchoprovocation challenge tests and cardiopulmonary exercise tests.

Additional ICU Rotations

Fellows also rotate through critical care units other than the medical intensive care unit such as:

• Neurocritical Care Unit – Rush University Medical Center

• Cardiovascular Critical Care Unit – Advocate Christ Medical Center

• Surgical Critical Care Unit – Stroger Hospital

Electives include Trauma ICU at Stroger Hospital and elective rotations at other Chicago hospitals on a case-to-case basis, depending on the fellow’s clinical interests.

Anesthesia Rotation

We share a close relationship with our anesthesia colleagues. Elective anesthesia rotations are offered by the program to provide airway experience in the operating room setting, in addition to a robust experience in the ICU.

Outpatient Clinic

• The outpatient clinical exposure in our program is vast. All fellows attend a half-day general pulmonary clinic for three years. In the second year, the fellows attend an additional half-day asthma clinic and sleep clinic. In the third year, they attend the interstitial lung disease clinic, pulmonary hypertension clinic and tuberculosis clinic.

• Sleep Medicine: The fellows learn how to evaluate patients with sleep disordered breathing, as well as patients with other sleep disorders like narcolepsy, parasomnias and insomnia. They also learn the basics of interpreting polysomnograms.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

The division runs a complete phase II outpatient pulmonary rehab program and offers phase III outpatient maintenance pulmonary rehabilitation. Our fellows learn how to screen the candidates for the program, how to write rehab prescriptions and how to evaluate program outcomes.

Ultrasound

The ultrasound curriculum is aimed at developing proficiency in acquiring and interpreting point of care ultrasound in critical care. There are dedicated ultrasound faculty that lead image review and didactics.