Clinical Training Sites

The UC San Diego Medical Center Hillcrest Hospital is located on the north side of downtown San Diego on the Hillcrest neighborhood campus. This rotation includes a busy infectious disease inpatient consult service, emergency department consults, and the outpatient ID clinic held in the adjacent Ambulatory Care Center. This service provides the fellows with a broad experience with viral, bacterial, mycobacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections related to medical, surgical, and substance use. The majority of the patient population is undeserved and/or are from marginalized groups. Its geographic location near the Mexico border also provides access to patients who seek care for infectious diseases that are endemic to tropical and subtropical regions of Mexico and Central America.

The VAMC is located on the UC San Diego La Jolla campus. This rotation includes consult services for inpatients at the VAMC. The VAMC is a general medical hospital without obstetrics or pediatrics. This service provides the fellows with a broad experience with viral, bacterial, mycobacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections related to medical, surgical, and other acute illnesses. The ID Consult Service participates in the care of patients with HIV who are admitted to the medical or surgical services, controls the utilization of certain restricted antibiotics, and consults on all patients with medically important bacteremia. The VAMC also houses a large spinal cord injury service and a hemodialysis service for which infectious disease consultations are frequently sought. The StewaRdship and Infection Prevention (STRIPE) rotation also takes place at the VA and includes Monday morning general ID clinic, Tuesday morning wound care rounds, and a variety of other learning activities related to antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention.

During the first year, clinical fellowsspend four weeks on the outpatient ID clinic rotation, attending a variety of subspecialty ID clinics at the Hillcrest and Jacobs campuses. Fellows see a combination of new outpatient ID consults, discharge/hospital follow-up patients and patients enrolled in the Outpatient Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) program. Clinic encounters include a mix of in-person and telemedicine visits. Fellows also have the opportunity to rotate at UC San Diego's Refugee Health Clinic during this rotation.

The Owen Clinic is one of the oldest and largest HIV primary care clinics in the country. It is an extremely active Ryan White-funded, comprehensive care program that provides primary and specialty medical care to over 3,500 people living with and at risk for HIV. Fellows have the option of having their HIV continuity clinic at Owen during their second and/or third year of fellowship. In this capacity, they serve as the primary care provider for a panel of 30-50 patients with HIV. Fellows also have the option to rotate in any of the subspeciality clinics at Owen including the Women's clinic, Lipid Clinic, Medication Assisted Therapy Clinic, HCV/Liver Clinic, Anoscopy clinic, Gender Affirming Care clinic, and PrEP clinic.

The VAMC Special ID (SPID) Clinic follows approximately 750 patients living with HIV and serves as another site where second- and third-year fellows can elect to do their HIV continuity clinic. This clinic includes all of the resources of the VAMC as well as ID pharmacists, social workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, a dietician, a psychiatric liaison and attendings from the UC San Diego ID/GPH division. Fellows function as primary care physicians for their panel of patients with HIV.