This unique program offers outstanding clinical training and research opportunities in infectious diseases, vaccine development, clinical trials, and public health.
The clinical training takes place at the University of Maryland Children's Hospital, a large tertiary level referral hospital with all pediatric and surgical sub-specialty services. Faculty members are committed to education and professional development of the fellows.
We offer a solid foundation for clinical expertise and outstanding opportunities for research in vaccine development and international health. The CVD is an international leader in the development and evaluation of vaccines, with a focus on diseases that have the greatest burden among children in low and middle-income countries. Research ranges from basic pathogenesis, vaccine development and immunology, to epidemiology, clinical trials and public health in domestic and international settings. This fellowship is open to individuals who have successfully completed a pediatric residency program. Fellows who have completed one year of clinical training elsewhere and still need to fulfill their research requirements may also apply. U.S. citizenship or Green Card is required.
Our pediatric infectious diseases fellows provide inpatient consultation for children admitted to the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, and outpatient clinic consultations either virtually or at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Practice, all located on the University of Maryland Baltimore campus in downtown Baltimore.
The inpatient consultation service is managed by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellow and an attending physician in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Fellows spend a minimum of 12 months in clinical training, mostly during the first year of fellowship training. The fellow manages the service by triaging requests for inpatient and outpatient consultation, conducting consultations, and by directing learning activities for students, residents, and other fellows who rotate on the Pediatric Infectious Diseases service. The fellow also moderates the division’s weekly Pediatric Infectious Diseases conference, including case presentation, critical review of the literature, and discussion of key decision questions. The fellow also assists with relevant conference presentations, including Pediatric Resident teaching conferences, Pediatric Morbidity and Mortality conference, Pediatric Grand Rounds, Patient Care Quality Reviews, and Clinical Microbiology Laboratory presentations.
Monday Joint Case Conference: Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellows, faculty, and rotating medical students, residents, and fellows from other services meet every Monday afternoon to discuss thought-provoking clinical cases that stimulate discussion and enhance learning opportunities.
Wednesday Case Conference: Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellows, faculty, and rotating medical students, residents, and fellows from other services meet every Wednesday afternoon to discuss recent clinical cases that generate interesting clinical questions for discussion. This conference is moderated by the fellow on clinical service who presents the case and interesting clinical questions with literature reviews, and is supplemented by a Pediatric Infectious Diseases attending physician who discusses a differential diagnosis and recommendations for management.
Friday Didactic Lecture Series: Fellows in Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases receive formal didactic lectures from faculty on a variety of board-relevant topics.
Pediatric ID Faculty Didactic Lecture Series: monthly didactic lecture directed toward fellows by Pediatric Infectious Diseases faculty on board-relevant and clinically useful topics.
Pediatric ID Journal Club: Fellows and attendings in Pediatric Infectious Diseases meet monthly to review a recently published article.
Red Book Reading Club: This program is directed by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Program Director and includes fellows and attending physicians who review and discuss sections of the AAP Red Book with a focus on board-specific topics and recent changes in recommendations.
Pediatric Grand Rounds: Weekly grand rounds every Thursday at noon
Fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases are provided unparalleled opportunities for all avenues of research related to the subspecialty. Each fellow directs their own research activities, with guidance from a primary research mentor, and frequently in collaboration with co-mentor(s). Fellows have the opportunity to create a learning experience that draws from the strengths of multiple research programs, centers, and institutes on campus. Each fellow develops and completes a primary research project that satisfies the subspecialty-specific requirement for training, and typically increases their learning experience by participation in additional research activities at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), of which all Pediatric Infectious Diseases faculty are members. CVD research activities include basic laboratory research through vaccine development, epidemiological studies, preclinical and clinical evaluation of vaccines and therapeutics, large-scale pre-licensure field studies, and post-licensure assessments. Training is a cornerstone of activities at the CVD, and pediatric infectious diseases fellows are thus purposefully incorporated into many activities with a goal to train next-generation scientists and researchers. Fellowship research activities take place on the Baltimore campus and at multiple sites worldwide.
Since inception in 1807, the University of Maryland School of Medicine has led multiple scientific advances that have dramatically and measurably impacted and improved people’s lives. The School of Medicine’s areas of research focus include basic science, cardiovascular research, genomics research, global health and vaccinology, stem cell research, and the University of Maryland’s Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellows can also take advantage of opportunities for didactic training via Master’s Program coursework, including Epidemiology and Human Genetics and Master of Public Health.
Each year, we accept 1-2 pediatricians into our Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program. During the two-year research training part of our program, successful application to our NIH-supported T32 Vaccinology Training Grant provides funding for fellows who pursue research projects related to vaccine development, including disease burden/epidemiology, immunology, or clinical trials.
Click here to learn more about the T32 Training Grant in Vaccinology or review the T32 fact sheet.
Sumanth Cherukumilli, MD joined our pediatric infectious diseases fellowship in July of 2022. Cherukumilli obtained his MD from the American University of Antigua in 2018 and completed residency in pediatrics in the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI. While in Marshfield, Cherukumilli co-authored guidelines used by the pediatric hospital to treat COVID-19 in children. His areas of interest in research include mortality reduction in sepsis in LMIC and screening for Chagas disease in pregnant Hispanic females.
| Adetunike (Mary) Boyd, MD, Country Director, U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Nigeria office |
| Dennis Cunningham, MD, System Medical Director of Infection Prevention, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan |
| Filip Dubovsky, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, NOVAVAX INC |
| Jaya Goswami, MD, MA, Staff Fellow, Division of Vaccines and Related Product Applications, Office of Vaccines Research and Review, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration |
| Elizabeth A. D. Hammershaimb, MD, Instructor of Pediatrics, University of Maryland, Baltimore |
| Julia Hutter, MD, Medical Officer Team Lead, Vaccine Clinical Research Branch, DAIDS, NIAID, NIH |
| Ralph Leblanc, MD, MPH, PhD, Medical Officer, U.S. FDA |
| Melissa Rosenberg, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Michigan State University |
| Stephen Savarino, MD, MPH, Associate Vice President, Translational Sciences and Biomarkers, Sanofi Pasteur |
| Daniel Scott, MD, Vice President, Pfizer Vaccine Research |
| Debbie-Ann Shirley, MBBS, Associate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia |
| Jakub Simon, MD, MS, Director of Clinical Research, Vaccines, Merck & Co., Inc. |
| Jenny Walldorf, MD, Medical Officer, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, World Health Organization |