Yale Rheumatology Fellowship Training

A rheumatology fellowship is a program that prepares new physicians and postdoctoral trainees for careers in academic rheumatology. We offer a traditional fellowship for physicians that includes clinical training and two or more years of clinical, translational, and/or laboratory research. We also offer research fellowships for individuals with PhD degrees.

“We want to provide the best training for young physicians so that, as they step into practice, they’re in the best possible position to address the growing problem of rheumatological disorders.”
–Richard Bucala, MD, Section Chief, Rheumatology, Allergy, & Immunology

For over 45 years, our rheumatology fellowship program has had a rich history in training outstanding research scientists and leaders in clinical medicine, in the exceptional educational environment offered by Yale. Many former trainees are now Yale faculty or faculty members at other academic institutions. These include a university president, several division directors in the U.S. and Canada, and two investigators at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Our traditional fellowship for physicians emphasizes career development. Qualified fellows may also apply for advanced training through the Yale Investigative Medicine Program, the National Clinician Scholars Program, the Yale Master of Health Science program, or the Yale School of Public Health. We also offer research fellowships in immunobiology, inflammation, and related disciplines for individuals with PhD degrees. Research training for both MD and PhD fellows is supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Our clinical training program offers exposure to a wide variety of inflammatory rheumatic diseases in the inpatient setting through the rheumatology consult service at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Outpatient clinics at the YNHH and Saint Raphael campuses, the North Haven Interventional Immunology Center, the Cornell-Scott Hill Health Center, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System offer a rich and varied patient care experience, exposing trainees to the full spectrum of rheumatic conditions. The VA clinics are conducted in concert with orthopedics and physiatry, providing comprehensive training in musculoskeletal medicine in a multidisciplinary setting, along with training in musculoskeletal ultrasound. Weekly clinical conferences at the VA focus on osteoarthritis, musculoskeletal conditions, clinical research methodology, and radiology, while the weekly conferences at the Yale-New Haven campus emphasize the pathophysiology and management of complex autoimmune conditions.

Research training is overseen by individual mentors from the clinical and basic science faculty at the School of Medicine and the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Each fellow is also assigned a mentoring committee. A list of potential research mentors is available, although fellows can elect to do research projects with any qualified faculty member at Yale.

Interested candidates can apply using the universal application available through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Applicants with a PhD degree should contact Dr. Richard Bucala, section chief, Dr. Fotios Koumpouras, training program director, or Dr. Betty Hsiao, associate program director.

We welcome any questions you may have regarding clinical or scientific training at Yale!