Academic Hospitalist Fellowship Enters its Fourth Year
The UW Academic Hospitalist Fellowship is a one-year fellowship program established in 2018 by Associate Professors Somnath Mookherjee and Andrew White. The Fellowship was created to support graduating internal medicine residents or early-career hospitalists who are seeking to build a career as hospitalist clinician-scholars. Structured elements in the Fellowship include participation in the Certificate Program in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (CPiPSQI), Teaching Scholars Program (TSP), and DGIM Faculty Development Program seminars. However, much of the training relies on self-directed, experiential learning.
The Fellowship offers mentorship, time, and support for Fellows to execute projects on topics that they find interesting. These projects can be related to work in the CPiPSQI or TSP, collaboration with existing faculty projects, or completely new projects based on their own interests. Unlike many post-residency fellowships, Fellows practice in their clinical time as independent attending physicians, receiving the same mentorship and feedback on their clinical work as any other junior faculty. Ideal candidates for this Fellowship are self-motivated and interested in building an authentic career in Academic Hospital Medicine.
Former fellows include Emily Grossniklaus, who is now a hospitalist a VA-Puget Sound, and Diana Zhong, who is an Infectious Disease Fellow at Johns Hopkins. Scott Berger is the program’s current fellow and will soon be moving to Florida to continue his career in academic medicine. When asked what they had gained from the fellowship, Emily said “The Academic Hospitalist Fellowship Program gave me the skills to begin my career as a hospitalist passionate about medical education and scholarship. Most importantly, the Fellowship enabled me to establish connections with outstanding mentors who listened to my goals and have helped guide me in the early stages of my career. These skills and connections will be invaluable for me going forward!”
Scott says, “The Academic Hospitalist Fellowship Program has been an incredible asset to my career, without question. … Thanks to the mentorship I’ve received from Som and others who dedicated their time to me, I now have a network of people that can help me move in many different directions. Additionally, many of the resources here that I found most useful during my year here would not have been available to me had I started my career anywhere else. Thanks to the tools I’ve found here, I found my area of interest, found my career direction, and feel more prepared for an academic career. I would not have developed my current trajectory … had I not been given this opportunity.”
Recruitment for the next Fellow opens on July 1, 2021.