The Pulmonary/Critical Care program boasts a variety of conferences throughout the week on topics ranging from advanced echocardiography to interstitial lung disease. Although many conferences are optional, mandatory core fellow conferences are created with specific educational objectives in mind and follow an 18 month comprehensive pulmonary and critical care curriculum. These conferences are held in two formats. The first is a monthly "Education Day," which focuses on a specific topic or skill set. During Education Days, fellows are excused from their clinical responsibilities and spend the day learning from experts drawn from both outside and within the Cleveland Clinic. Education Days offer a structured and thorough assessment of major themes within pulmonary/critical care medicine and take advantage of our goal to provide a high yield, comprehensive educational experience for each fellow.
In addition to Education Days, fellows are required to attend a series of morning and afternoon conferences throughout the week, each with a specific educational objective. In these conferences, fellows have the opportunity to explore areas such as ventilator management, echocardiography, and critical care pathophysiology. To keep things interesting, fellows present topics in multiple formats from journal club, pro-con debates, to our biannual "stump the chump" competition where the diagnostic skills of our respected faculty are put to the test.
Beyond these conferences, fellows enjoy full support from the Respiratory Institute to attend a major international conference in each year of fellowship. First year fellows attend the CHEST conference in October. Second Year fellows attend the American Thoracic Society Meeting in May. Third year fellows attend a conference of their choice where they are expected to present their scholarly work.
