Rheumatology Fellowship Program

About the Fellowship

The Division of Rheumatology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine offers a rheumatology fellowship, which is part of the diverse and renowned family of the UC San Diego Graduate Medical Education.  Fellowship applicants must be on track to have completed three years of internal medicine residency (PGY 1-3) by the time the rheumatology training program is to commence.

Training Tracks

While we offer three different training tr​acks, a two year ACGME-accredited training cycle for ABIM board eligibility is done by all trainees. 

Clinical Experience

The partitioning of time between clinical and research experience will depend on the interests and needs of the candidate.

All training tracks feature highly diverse clinical inpatient and outpatient experiences, with outpatient continuity clinics at 3 different sites:

• UC San Diego Health Medical Center - Hillcrest
• UC San Diego Health Perlman Medical Offices - La Jolla
• Rady Children’s Hospital Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic

Inpatient rotations include rheumatology and consult services at UC San Diego health hospitals and the VA​. Elective rotations through endocrine/metabolic bone disease, dermatology/rheumatology, rheumatology/nephrology lupus, and orthopedic clinics, as well as elective in advanced/interventional musculoskeletal ultrasound are routinely offered during the second year of training. Musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic, formal didactic ultrasound curriculum are core assignments and can be supplemented by USSONAR training for interested trainees.

Conferences

Conferences include weekly grand rounds and case conferences. Rheumatology teaching core curriculum consist of conferences for orienting the arriving first year trainees to the field, and a total of 24 month rheumatic disease clinical and pathophysiology curriculum. Since its inception, our program has maintained first-time pass board rate of 100%.

Research Opportunities

Clinical and basic research training choices are particularly diverse, and are supported by NIH-funded T32 training program in rheumatic diseases (Monica Guma, M.D., Ph.D. as the Principal Investigator), and the large Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) award to UC San Diego, with Gary Firestein, M.D., as the Principal Investigator. Center for Innovative Therapy (CIT) based of UC San Diego Altman Clinical Training and Research Institute (ACTRI) hosts the headquarters of our training program.

Choices include:

• Clinical-translational research in immune modulation
• Wuantitative genomics and bioinformatics
• Clinical epidemiology, and outcomes research
• clinical trial methodology training

Additional formalized training in clinical and translational research, as well as epidemiology and health services research applicable to rheumatology, can be obtained through the NIH-funded CREST program at UC San Diego which is offered through ACTRI. As a component of the CREST program, trainees have the opportunity to obtain either a Masters of Advanced Studies (MAS) or a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree in conjunction with San Diego State University School of Public Health.

Clinical and basic research opportunities in innate and adaptive immunity, inflammation biology, and translational immune modulation also are particularly diverse, and are offered by our own faculty, and more than 40 different mentors at UC San Diego (in Rheumatology, Pharmacology, Genetics, Immunology, Biology) and from closely affiliated La Jolla research institutions (including La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI), Sanford-Burnham Institute, and the J Craig Venter Institute, and others.

How to Apply

To apply for the rheumatology fellowship, you must submit an application through Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Requirements include: 3 letters of recommendation, Dean's Letters/MSPE, transcripts, and other supporting credentials from applicants and medical schools.