As apart of the learning experience fellows are required to attend and present at Rheumatology Grand Rounds, Journal Club and Didactic Conferences. This is a core component of their education and helps to advance their learning in both clinical and basic science knowledge. 

Rheumatology Grand Rounds

Fellows are REQUIRED to attend and present at the Rheumatology Grand Rounds Conferences held every Thursday. The weekly cconferences includes a once monthly session with a specialized musculoskeletal radiology attending, and another once a month session with an anatomic pathology and clinical immunology attending. The fellows are expected to aid in the preparation of both of these presentations by finding the cases for their discussion. The balance of the sessions are devoted to clinical patient-based, bedside teaching, pathophysiology or research topics in diagnostic and therapeutic patient related decisions. Presentations are prepared by the fellows, rheumatology faculty members, and by speakers from other related disciplines in different departments and institutions. We have visiting rheumatologists from outside the institution present for these conferences twice a year. As a part of their learning experience, fellows are required to present case-based presentation 6 times/year (every other month) at the conference. They are encouraged to have a faculty member review over their case lecture before their presentation to ensure proper format setting, quality control, and its content subject to its intended audience education level.

Department of Rheumatology Scientific Lab Conference/Journal Club

Fellows are REQUIRED to attend and present at the weekly Scientific Lab Conference Sessions/Journal Clubs held every Wednesday. This conference focuses on current rheumatic disease research both internally and externally. Fellows are expected to present basic science or hybrid clinic and basic science papers for their presentation. It is encouraged that they get aid from post-doc’s, lab personnel and the course director to prepare for their presentations to get a complete understanding of the expected format. 

Didactic Sessions

Fellows are REQUIRED to attend and present at weekly didactic conferences focusing on the scientific basis of Rheumatic Diseases. The fellow on consult will determine the didactic topic at the start of the week for the presentation on Friday. It is emphasized that the fellows will be the one to present on the topics, but can assign rotating students and residents a portion of the presentation(s) to prepare and present on. The schedule of sessions will follow along the topics listed for the ACR In-Training exam. For each Rheumatologic disease there will be a presentation and discussion of the ACR guidelines of its pathophysiology, manifestations, treatments, and updates. Additional case-study presentations can be added to the Friday didactic presentations. All presentations should be sent to the program coordinator to be uploaded to MedHub where all faculty and fellows can access the presentation/or educational materials.

Core Rheumatology Lectures

At the beginning of the academic year, the faculty will be presenting core rheumatology lectures to the fellows. This will occur during the didactic session or other available times. Fellows are REQUIRED to attend. These lectures will be an overview of the field of rheumatology that is orientated towards a fellow’s level of education. The goal of these lectures is help incoming and returning fellows gather critical thinking skills specific to rheumatology.

Department of Medicine Grand Rounds and Noon Conference

Fellows are encouraged to attend the weekly Department of Medicine Grand Rounds, where clinical and research topics in internal medicine are presented including monthly quality conferences. Fellows are encouraged to attend the weekly Morning Medicine Resident Conference that lectures on a wide variety of internal medicine topics.

Other Conferences

Fellows are encouraged to attend the many other didactic teaching exercises available at SUNY Upstate Medical University, such as the weekly Nephrology Conference, the weekly Orthopedic Surgery Grand Rounds, Department of Microbiology and Immunology Research Conferences, etc.

Visiting Professor Conference Series

We at the department of Rheumatology are very dedicated to continuing our commitment to education in the field of rheumatology by opening our department to various speakers from outside the institution. Every year we have approximately 2-6 professors from other institutions come to present on their latest original research, case studies, discoveries in rheumatic disease pathogenesis, updates on biomarkers in the diagnostics of rheumatic disease, and/or updates on biomarkers predication for positive and negative treatment outcome for Rheumatic Diseases. Dr. Paul Phillips Visiting professor fund and the Department of Medicine is a proud sponsor of this conference series.

2012- Betty Diamond, MD - Head Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Disorders at Feinstein Institute of Medical Research

2012- George C. Tsokos, MD - Chief, Division of Rheumatology - Harvard Medical School

2013- Brad Rovin, MD - Vice Chair Research Department of Medicine – Ohio State University

2014 - Joel Kremer, MD – Director of Research Center for Rheumatology – Albany Medical College

2014- Nancy Olsen, MD – Chief, Division of Rheumatology – Penn State Hershey Medical Center

2015 – Joan Bathon, MD – Director of the Division of Rheumatology – Columbia University

2015 – Paul Anderson, MD, Ph.D – Vice Chair, Division of Rheumatology – Brigham and Women’s Hospital

2016 – Karen Costenbader MD, MPH – Director Lupus Program – Harvard Medical School

2016 – Shu Man Fu, MD, Ph.D, MACR – Professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology - University of Virginia Health System

2016 – John Harley, MD, Ph.D – Director, Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology – University of Cincinnati

2016 – Vasileios C. Kyttaris, MD – Assistant Professor Department of Medicine – Harvard Medical School

2017 – Amr Sawalha, MD – Marvin and Betty Danto Research Professor of Connective Tissue Research – University of Michigan

Upcoming:

2017 – Richard Bucala, MD, Ph.D – Professor of Medicine – Yale School of Medicine

2017 – Matthew Vander Heiden, MD, Ph.D – Associate Professor of Biology – Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Resarch at MIT