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Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship Program

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Welcome from Program Director

Welcome to the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program at MUSC. We are excited that you are considering a career in pulmonary and critical care!

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Our three-year ACGME-accredited program is designed to offer fellows a comprehensive and personalized training experience in preparation for a career in pulmonary and critical care medicine. With a strong range of clinical experiences, the program's first year emphasizes clinical evaluation and management, ambulatory practice, and procedural training. A structured research, education and mentorship curriculum has been developed for our fellows, which involves the second and third years focusing on engaging in high-quality and productive research. Additional faculty mentor support is provided for career development, preparing fellows for the transition to the early career environment.

Clinical training comprises the entire first year and parts of the second and third years of the fellowship, in structured one-month blocks, under the supervision of designated attending physicians. All fellows with complete a minimum of 18 clinical months spread out over 3 years to contain the core requirements of 6 months Medicine-based ICU, 3 months non-Medicine-based ICU and 9 months Pulmonary core rotations. The remaining 18 months with be chosen by the fellow with guided faculty and research mentorship to develop a successful career pathway.

Clinical Rotations

Core Medical ICUs

Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU): A traditional tertiary care, academic, medical ICU provides a wide range of complex medical patients staffed by Internal Medicine residents and interns.

Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit (MSICU): An eclectic specialty ICU caring for Lung transplant, Oncology, BMT, GI-Luminal, GI surgical, and bariatric patients staffed by Anesthesia residents and advanced practice providers.

Specialty Medical Intensive Care Unit (SMICU): A specialty ICU focusing on pre- and post-Liver and Renal transplant patients staffed by advanced practice providers

VA Intensive Care Unit (VA-ICU): A traditional community-based ICU varying for veterans with cardiac and general critical illnesses staffed by Internal Medicine and Family medicine residents. The fellow is also assigned an anesthesia team in the operating room for airway education and intubations.

Additional Non-Medical ICU Rotations Include:

  • Cardiac intensive care unit
  • Cardiothoracic Surgical intensive care unit
  • Surgical Trauma & Burn intensive care unit
  • Neurosurgical intensive care unit

Inpatient Pulmonary Rotations

Pulmonary Consults: A high-level tertiary center consultation service with a variety of learners servicing a wide-ranging patient population from common pulmonary syndromes to several different subspecialty pulmonary patients.

Procedure Lab: Working alongside subspecialty trained Interventional Pulmonologists, fellows with learn pre-procedural assessments and planning, and develop skills in common and advanced bronchoscopic and thoracic interventions.

Lung Transplant: MUSC is the only lung transplant center in the state of South Carolina. Work alongside transplant pulmonologists to manage pre- and post-lung transplant patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

VA Pulmonary: A traditional community-like general pulmonary rotation providing a mixture of ambulatory, inpatient, and procedural pulmonary experiences in service of regional military veterans.

Ambulatory Training: Fellows maintain a weekly half day continuity clinic at either the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center or the MUSC Rutledge Tower Clinic for the first 2 years of fellowship training. During the final year, fellows can choose an ambulatory faculty mentor to work with for 6-month intervals in subspecialty pulmonary clinics.

Additional Ambulatory Rotation Experiences Include:

  • General Pulmonary
  • Interstitial Lung Diseases and Sarcoidosis
  • Pulmonary Hypertension
  • Pulmonary Infectious Diseases
  • Thoracic Oncology
  • Sleep Medicine

The Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship program offers a comprehensive longitudinal curriculum consisting of core topics aimed at ABIM board preparation in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine. Daily conferences are held at noon in the division conference room and are well supported, mentored, and attended by faculty members. Fellows have protected time from clinical duties for educational conferences. The conference schedule features a nice mix of didactic content from expert faculty, clinical case-based learning, scientific methodology, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Educational Conferences include:

  • Pulmonary Core Didactics
  • Critical Care Core Didactics
  • Clinical Case Conference
  • Journal Club
  • Research Works-in-Progress

Multidisciplinary Conferences include:

  • Critical Care Grand Rounds
  • Morbidity and Mortality Conference
  • Interstitial Lung Disease Conference
  • Pulmonary/Cardiology Joint Case Conference
  • Thoracic Tumor Boards
  • Multidisciplinary Sleep Case Conference
  • Sleep Journal Club

Research Training & Mentorship

The primary goal of our fellowship programs is to train the future thought leaders of academic pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. Rigorous training and in-depth experience in research are central features of the pulmonary and critical care and two-year critical care training programs for all accepted applicants. We recognize that many fellows enter fellowship with limited research experience. Thus, we have established a system to assist each fellow in finding the overall career track, subject area, and career mentor best suited for them. For more information visit our Research Training & Mentorship website.

Application Process

Applications for MUSC’s combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program are submitted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

We require that candidates have passed USMLE Step 3 exam (or the equivalent COMLEX Step 3 exam) before entering the fellowship on July 1 and, if applicable, have a current ECFMG certificate.

We accept candidates who are US citizens, permanent residents (green card), or on J1 visas.

The Fellowship Selection Committee reviews completed fellowship application packets which include:

  • Application
  • CV
  • Personal statement
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • USMLE transcript, and/or COMLEX, and ECFMG status report (if applicable)

All application materials, including supporting letters, must be received before an individual’s application review commences.

Each year, the division receives over 450 applications for fellowship training. Approximately 15% of the applicants are invited for formal interviews. Individuals are selected to interview based on a holistic review process that assesses applicants for fit and potential for a career in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Qualities and values sought in applicants include outstanding academic achievement, well-developed clinical and leadership skills, professionalism, and collegiality during their previous training. The fellowship training program values a range of experiences and encourages applicants from various backgrounds.

We participate in the Medical Specialties Matching Program for fellowships in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. For more information, see the ERAS website.

Interview Information

In alignment with the recommendations of the Association of Pulmonary and Critical Care Program Directors (APCCMPD), our national professional society, and to ensure a uniform interview process, our fellowship interviews for applicants in the 2025-2026 cycle will be held exclusively virtually. We will not offer in-person site visits.

For this application cycle, we will be participating in program signaling. We will preferentially review applications from those who signal our program, but we also will consider applicants who do not signal us. PCCM Fellowship interviews will be held on Thursdays in September and October.

Current Fellows

View our current MUSC Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellows.

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