Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship

Welcome to the Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine Fellowship

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center has been serving the Boston area since its founding by five Catholic nuns in 1867, and has been a major teaching hospital for the Tufts University School of Medicine for many years. The hospital has ACGME-accredited training programs in the specialties of internal medicine, general surgery, psychiatry and anesthesiology. We have fellowship programs in pulmonary/critical care medicine, cardiovascular medicine, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology and hematology/oncology. Our unaccredited programs are in cardiothoracic anesthesia, peripheral vascular disease, and urologic laparoscopy and robotic-assisted surgery. We also have residents and fellows who rotate at the medical center from Tufts Medical Center in gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, infectious disease, ophthalmology, and nephrology.

In the four decades since its inception, the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship Program continues to grow and expand, offering outstanding training experiences in a variety of settings, covering the full breadth of pulmonary medicine and critical care practice. Trainees directly participate in all aspects of care for a wide variety of patients, from those with common conditions to advanced thoracic malignancy and complex airway diseases.

As a member of the Steward Health Care Network, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center serves as the main tertiary referral site for a network of 10 hospitals across eastern Massachusetts. Advanced services and programs such as robotic-assisted surgery, advanced airway stenting, LVADS and minimally invasive heart valve replacement, a full range of thoracic and cardiothoracic surgery services, and access to the most advanced research protocols from bronchial thermoplasty to new drug trials for pulmonary fibrosis allow the fellow to directly contribute to the provision of state-of-the-art care and to the advancement of the field. Innovative programs such as the telemedicine critical care (eICU) service and interventional pulmonology provide the trainee with an unparalleled experience of the future direction of pulmonary and critical care medicine.

One of the hallmarks of the program is the close and collegial relationship between the fellows and the staff. Frequent daily interaction in the hospital, clinics and conferences allow for effective mentorship and professional exchange on a scale which is rarely achieved.  Although our graduates practice across the globe in both clinical practice and academic positions, they always fondly think of St. Elizabeth’s as a “second home” and remain members of our extended medical family.

I invite you to explore our website and consider all that St. Elizabeth’s has to offer. Application to the program can be initiated online at the ERAS website.

Andrew H. Moraco, MD
Program Director

Lisa Bajpayee, MD
Associate Program Director

Judy O'Rourke
Fellowship Program Coordinator
judy.o’rourke@steward.org
617.789.2548

Our Faculty

St. Elizabeth’s pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine specialists are all board-certified faculty members of the Tufts University School of Medicine.

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Curriculum

The clinical curriculum for trainees in the first, second and third year of fellowship training is outlined here.

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Evaluation

The goal of the clinical fellowship training program in pulmonary disease/critical care medicine at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center is to provide the trainee with an environment, patient population, and resources which afford excellent training and clinical competence in pulmonary and critical care medicine. This includes clinical training devoted to pulmonary diseases (both inpatient and outpatients) and the critical care treatment of medical, surgical, cardiac, obstetrical, and neurological diagnosis.

In all of these settings, fellows are provided with opportunities to directly manage pulmonary and critical care patients, while being supervised by staff members of the division. In addition, trainees are exposed to patients following hospital discharge and gain experience in managing this population in a pulmonary/critical care outpatient clinic. The trainee acquires procedural skills related to the care of pulmonary and critical care patients throughout these rotations. In addition, fellows gain extensive experience in working as an effective member of the critical care and pulmonary consult teams.

Fellows are provided feedback on an ongoing basis by the faculty both face-to-face as well as through the New Innovations website. Every 6 months, the Clinical Competency Committee meets to judge the fellows’ performance and provide guidance for improvement. At this meeting, the CCC opines on the progress of each fellow in each of the ACGME Milestones of training. This is followed by a face-to-face meeting with the program director in order to discuss the positives and negatives of a given fellows’ progress. In addition, on a bi-monthly basis, the Program Evaluation Committee meets. This committee consists of representative faculty as well as a fellow from each year of training and allows for a review of the division’s specific rotations and curriculum and allows for review of any concerns from the faculty or trainee viewpoint. Every year, the first and second-year fellows take an in-service exam in pulmonary and critical care medicine, and the third-year fellows take an in-service exam in critical care medicine. These exams allow for pinpointing areas of weakness in fellows’ funds of knowledge that may be homed in upon during board exam preparation. Lastly, the program director meets with all of the fellows on a monthly basis to receive feedback on their experience with the programs and to discuss potential changes as the need arises.

Salary & Benefits

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center offers salaries that are competitive with surrounding Boston hospitals and are adjusted annually.

Applying

Medical Education

Applicants with one of the following qualifications are eligible for consideration for the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship Program:

• Graduates of medical schools in the United States and Canada accredited by the Liason Committee on Medical Education (LCME)
• Graduates of colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA)
• Graduates of medical schools outside of the United States and Canada who meet one of the following criteria:
  • Have received a currently valid certificate from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates prior to appointment, or
  • Have a full, unrestricted license to practice medicine in a U.S. licensing jurisdiction in which they are training
• Graduates of medical schools outside the United States who have completed a Fifth Pathway Program provided by a LCME-accredited medical school.

Postdoctoral Education and Training

To be eligible for training in pulmonary/critical care medicine at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, successful completion of a program of residency in internal medicine, which is accredited by the ACGME and which is a minimum of three years’ in duration is mandatory.

Selection

Ranking of eligible applicants for the fellowship is performed on the basis of their preparedness, ability, aptitude, academic credentials, communication skills and personal qualities (such as motivation and integrity). St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center strictly prohibits discrimination in trainee selection based on sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin disability, or veteran status.

The Pulmonary/Critical Care Program at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center participates in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) for pulmonary/critical care diseases for matching of ranked applicants.

An applicant invited to interview for a fellowship position will be informed, in writing or by electronic means, of the terms, conditions and benefits of appointment to the ACGME-accredited program, either in effect at the time of the interview or that will be in effect at the time of his or her eventual appointment. Information provided will include: financial support; vacations, parental, sick and other leaves of absences; and professional liability, hospitalizations, health, disability and other insurance accessible to fellows and their eligible dependents.

Visa Requirements - St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center sponsors the following visas:

Exchange Visitor J-1, Required for all International applicants
The foreign national physician must pass Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), or an examination determined to be equivalent to the NBME by the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, the foreign national physician must hold a valid Standard ECFMG certificate; have a contract with an ACGME-accredited program at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, provide a written statement from the Ministry of Health in the country of most recent legal permanent residence that attest to the need for physicians trained in the exchange visitor’s specialty and that verifies that the exchange visitor has filed written assurance that he/she will return to the county upon completion of training. The duration of participation for the exchange visitor at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is for the time required to meet the educational requirements for certification by an American specialty board that has been recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Duration of participation is further limited to a maximum of 7 years.

Temporary Worker H-1B visas will not be supported for this academic year.