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INFORMATION FOR

Infection Prevention Fellowship Track

The goal of the Infection Prevention Fellowship Track is to provide fellows with a comprehensive understanding of healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention while developing the practical skills necessary to serve as an effective physician partner in modern healthcare systems. Through individualized mentorship and hands-on experiences, fellows gain exposure to the principles, practices, and leadership responsibilities of hospital infection prevention programs.

Core components include:

1. Individualized mentorship and directed learning

  • Complete directed readings and receiving faculty mentorship tailored to the fellow's interests in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention.

2. Healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance

  • Participate in surveillance activities for healthcare-associated infections, including central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), surgical site infections (SSIs), and other reportable HAIs.
  • Gain an understanding of surveillance methodologies, case definitions, data interpretation, and performance metrics used in hospital infection prevention programs.

3. Quality improvement and performance improvement

  • Participate in multidisciplinary quality improvement initiatives focused on reducing healthcare-associated infections.
  • Attend HAI-related performance improvement meetings and, when appropriate, participate in CLABSI, SSI, and Clostridioides difficile infection case reviews to understand root cause analysis and systems-based approaches to prevention.

4. Exposure and outbreak investigations

  • Participate in the investigation and management of healthcare-associated exposures and infectious disease outbreaks occurring during the rotation.
  • Learn principles of outbreak detection, epidemiologic investigation, containment strategies, and communication with multidisciplinary stakeholders.

5. Healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention operations

  • Gain exposure to the day-to-day operations of a hospital infection prevention program through experiences tailored to the fellow's interests and ongoing institutional initiatives.
  • Potential areas of focus include environmental infection prevention, cleaning and disinfection practices, emergency preparedness, construction and the environment of care, occupational health, and emerging infection prevention challenges.

By the completion of the track, fellows will have developed a functional understanding of infection prevention principles, healthcare epidemiology, surveillance systems, outbreak response, and multidisciplinary quality improvement. These experiences prepare graduates to assume leadership roles in infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology programs within academic medical centers and children's hospitals.