About the Program

The Rheumatology Fellowship is a two-year training program with the option of a third year for additional research experience. Fellows participate in two years of longitudinal clinical experience at Ohio State Davis Outpatient Care and two years of inpatient consultative experience at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's University Hospital.

Comprehensive clinical practice in rheumatology offers fellows ample opportunities to become proficient in the procedures of tendon sheath and bursae aspiration and injection, musculoskeletal ultrasound and arthrocentesis and joint injection. Fellows receive adequate training experience to function as a consultant in clinical, research and academic rheumatology. At the completion of the training program, fellows will be board eligible in the subspecialty of rheumatology.

Curriculum

The core curriculum combines didactic teaching, basic and clinical research projects and supervised patient care in the outpatient clinic and on the consultative inpatient service.

Fellows see patients with a diverse spectrum of clinical disorders, from osteoporosis, vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus and immunodeficiency to bursitis, osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia. The rheumatology fellows also attend ambulatory clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for experience in pediatric rheumatology. Elective rotations include orthopedics, musculoskeletal radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical and occupational therapy and private practice rheumatology.

Weekly didactic conferences include divisional case presentation conferences, journal club, immunology research conferences and interdepartmental conferences such as musculoskeletal radiology conference. All fellows are required to take a course in biomedical statistics, experimental design, biomedical ethics and risk management.

The rheumatology training program is located at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, which includes:

Pediatric rheumatology training is provided at Nationwide Children's Hospital, the second-largest children's hospital in America, located three miles from Ohio State. Approximately 1,500 clinic visits are conducted each year at the Davis Outpatient Care.

Research opportunities are offered in both clinical and basic science settings. Active graduate and postdoctoral programs complement the rheumatology training research experience. Faculty members supervise these basic science laboratories and the clinical pharmaceutical studies in the outpatient clinic.

Application to our Rheumatology Fellowship program is done via ERAS.

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Introductory Lecture Series

Curricular Topics

Rotations

Grand Rounds Assignments

Fellows will be asked to present specific topics in a division grand rounds presentation format. They will be assigned specific topics to ensure that they are familiar with a broad base of educational topics in the discipline of rheumatology including anatomy, genetics, biochemistry and physiology of connective tissue disease and pathologic aspects of rheumatic diseases.

Fellows will conduct an in-depth review from among the selected topics, complete with visual aids, etc., direct discussion of the topic with attendees and a detailed list of references:
  • Rheumatic problems in patients with renal diseases (post-transplant gout, dialysis arthropathy, amyloid, osteomalacia, etc.) 
  • Pregnancy related issues in rheumatic disease
  • Rheumatic problems in patient with endocrinologic diseases (hyperparathyroidism, diabetic cheiroarthropathy, metabolic bone disease, etc.) 
  • Rheumatic problems in patients with hematologic diseases (hemophilia, leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell disease, etc.)
  • Secondary causes of osteoarthritis (genetic, hemachromatosis, etc.)
Each quarter rheumatology fellows meet individually with the rheumatology fellowship training program director to review their progress and evaluate the training program.