Program Structure

The Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program at Columbia University provides 20-22 months of clinical training during the first two years of the fellowship. The clinical time is split between pulmonary and critical care medicine across these two years. Use of elective blocks allows the program to individually tailor training to meet each fellow’s unique career goals.  

The first two years provide robust clinical training in pulmonary and critical care medicine, including clinical experiences and training in advanced lung diseases, lung transplantation, and the use of Extracorporeal Life Support for respiratory failure. We also provide a hands-on training experience in airway management, critical care ultrasound, advanced bronchoscopy, and pleural procedures.

The third year of our fellowship program is structured based on the fellow’s career goals. Fellows pursuing a research career have 12 months dedicated to their research training and mentored project, and most often elect to stay for the optional fourth year. Fellows on the clinician scholar pathway have additional clinical training and protected time to work on scholarly projects. In addition, some clinician scholar fellows elect to obtain advanced clinical training in subspecialty clinics or extracorporeal life support, and some pursue advanced bronchoscopy training during their third year.

All fellows have one half-day of outpatient pulmonary clinic for the duration of their fellowship training.

Clinical Sites

Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC)

Columbia University Irving Medical Center, a 738-bed teaching hospital (including 117 adult ICU beds), serves as the main clinical site for the fellowship training. CUIMC, located in Washington Heights, has been a fixture in this community for over 70 years and provides care for patients in the surrounding neighborhoods, which are largely comprised of underserved, inner-city patients. CUIMC also serves as a large tertiary referral center for rare lung diseases and complex critically ill patients from our region and across the country. The diverse patient population and our referral programs provide fellows with an exceptional and unique setting for training in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Allen Hospital

Fellowship training also takes place at the Allen Hospital located on the northern tip of Manhattan. The Allen Hospital is an urban community hospital with 196 beds and 12 adult ICU beds. The Allen Hospital provides care for the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods, as well as Riverdale and the Bronx. Fellows rotate in the Allen ICU for 2-4 weeks during their second year of fellowship.

Call Schedule

There is no in-house call or overnight rotations for fellows. Weekend coverage is on average one in four weekends for all first- and second-year fellows. Third year fellows do not take weekend call.

Vacation

Fellows have four weeks of vacation each year.