In our comprehensive three-year fellowship program, you will receive a broad range of hands-on clinical experience and individualized instruction from nationally known physicians and investigators in a collegial environment.

Fellowship Experience

Our program provides superior clinical immunology and rheumatology training in a collaborative environment. We have specialty clinics across our medical campus, which is anchored by our 1,200 bed inpatient center UAB Hospital—the eighth largest public hospital in the nation. The hospital is in close proximity to the Birmingham VA Medical Center, UAB Hospital Highlands campus, The Kirklin Clinic, and Children's Hospital of Alabama where fellows also train.

Patients come from all over the state to take advantage of our life-changing care, offering a diverse population and breadth of clinical learning opportunities. We approach medicine in a multi-disciplinary modality across a broad variety of clinical immunology and rheumatology-related conditions through mandatory and elective rotations. We accept applications through the Electronic Residency Application Service.

Clinical Rotations

The fellow is offered electives in several subspecialty clinics to broaden their clinical exposure. The training curriculum incorporates multiple subspecialty clinics, which can be customized to the fellow's interests and career goals. Working one-on-one with multiple faculty members in different subspecialties provides a strong foundation and confidence in the treatment of all rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. In addition to our general clinical immunology and rheumatology inpatient consult service, fellows will rotate through our multidisciplinary lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and osteoporosis clinic services giving our trainees exposure to a wide variety of rheumatic diseases, enabling them to experience a broad patient population.

During the three-year training period, fellows must complete two years of clinical training and one additional year of either research or clinical training. In the first year, fellows gain clinical expertise in immunology and rheumatology through rotations in various services including general rheumatology and specialized clinics treating lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, osteoporosis. Fellows also train in Hospital Follow-up, and VA-based Continuity Clinic.

Electives include orthopedics/physical medicine and rehabilitation medicine, pain clinic, and pediatric rheumatology.

Teaching Conferences

Our training program is designed to provide our fellows with significant opportunities for teaching. Fellows are expected to help train/teach our residents and students rotating through the consult service. Fellows discuss cases and formulate management plans together with the residents. Fellows are also required to present and discuss cases at our conferences, as well as deliver lectures to medical students on a basic or clinical immunology or rheumatology topic.

Clinical Conference and Rheumatology Grand Rounds is a weekly opportunity for our faculty, fellows, and staff to hear from experts in a multitude of fields both within and outside of UAB. Topics vary from ongoing research projects to clinical vignettes with discussion of the rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease process.

All conferences are open to faculty, fellows, residents, students and staff, and are held in a hybrid format with the option to attend in-person or virtual via Zoom.

Research Opportunities

Research is an essential part of our training program. Our fellows are required to find a mentor during the first few months of training and begin working on their projects during their first year. Research time increases significantly during the second year of training and fellows are expected to devote approximately 70 percent effort to their research projects. Research may be in clinical or basic science projects depending on fellow interests. By the end of the second year of training, our fellows are expected to prepare their research findings and submit them for publication. Presentation of their research findings at regional or national scientific meetings is strongly encouraged.

The research program in our division is strongly supported by over $20M in multiple federal and non-federal grants. There are several federally funded T32 training grants led by division faculty. These grants provide eligible trainees (US citizens or permanent residents) with protected time, training, and additional advanced degrees to help interested trainees develop careers in biomedical research.

Frequently Asked Questions