Brown Medical School / Rhode Island Hospital

Training Program Director: Penelope H. Dennehy, MD

Associate Director/Co-Director: Tanya Rogo, MD

Coordinator: Rebecca Matuszek

Chief, Infectious Diseases: Michael Koster, MD

Major Features of Training Program: The Brown University Pediatric Infectious Diseases (PID) Fellowship Program is the only PID fellowship program in Rhode Island. Our program supports the training of 3 fellows, one of whom may be pursuing a combined program in both adult and pediatric infectious diseases. It is structured to give fellows a progressive educational experience over a period of three years encompassing fundamental concepts in immunology, microbiology, epidemiology, clinical pharmacology, infection control, and antimicrobial stewardship as they relate to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.

Training occurs at Rhode Island Hospital, with the majority of clinical experience occurring at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Hasbro has 87 inpatient beds (including PICU) and a pediatric emergency department. Fellows also train at Women & Infants Hospital, which has an 80-bed NICU and 60 newborn bassinets. We serve a population of racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity, including a large group of recent refugees/immigrants and non-native-English speakers. Fellows are exposed to a variety of clinical pediatric infectious diseases. They spend 12 months on the inpatient consultation service and 1/2 day per week in outpaitent clinic. Training in HIV and TB is available. Fellows also participate in microbiology, transplant, and infection control rotations. In their 2nd and 3rd years, most of their time is spent conducting mentored research.

Title(s) of Recent Fellows’ Published Research Papers:
1. Associations between geographic region and immune response variations to pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in clinical trials: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Choe YJ, Blatt DB, Lee HJ, Choi EH.Int J Infect Dis. 2020 Mar;92:261-268. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.12.021.PMID: 32147023

2. Prediction of Adverse Outcomes in Pediatric Acute Hematogenous Osteomyelitis.
Alhinai Z, Elahi M, Park S, Foo B, Lee B, Chapin K, Koster M, Sánchez PJ, Michelow IC.Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Dec 3;71(9):e454-e464. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa211.PMID: 32129457

3. Nephrotoxicity With Vancomycin in the Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Fiorito TM, Luther MK, Dennehy PH, LaPlante KL, Matson KL.Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018 Jul;37(7):654-661. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000001882.PMID: 29280786

4. Adverse Events Following Vaccination With Bivalent rLP2086 (Trumenba®): An Observational, Longitudinal Study During a College Outbreak and a Systematic Review.
Fiorito TM, Baird GL, Alexander-Scott N, Bornschein S, Kelleher C, Du N, Dennehy PH.Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018 Jan;37(1):e13-e19. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000001742.PMID: 28834957

5. SARS-CoV-2 HIV coinfection: clinical experience from Rhode Island, United States.
Byrd KM, Beckwith CG, Garland JM, Johnson JE, Aung S, Cu-Uvin S, Farmakiotis D, Flanigan T, Gillani FS, Macias-Gil R, Mileno M, Ramratnam B, Rybak NR, Sanchez M, Tashima K, Mylonakis E, Kantor R.J Int AIDS Soc. 2020 Jul;23(7):e25573. doi: 10.1002/jia2.25573.PMID: 32657527

Affiliated Hospitals:Rhode Island Hospital/Hasbro Children’s Hospital Women & Infants Hospital

Number of Inpatient/Outpatient Consults Per Year: 1,275

Fellows Accepted Each Year: 1

Visas Accepted: J1

Is Funding Ensured for all 3 Years?: Yes

Is Completion of Pediatric Residency Training in the U.S. or Canada a Requirement?: No

Program Provides Training, Didactic Lectures, Hands-On Experience, or Antimicrobial Stewardship Meetings/Membership in:
1. Microbiology lab on site
2. Infection control and hospital epidemiology
3. Antimicrobial stewardship
4. Immunocompromised hosts

Opportunities to Fulfill the ABP Requirements for Scholarly Activity is Available in the Following General Areas:
1. Antimicrobial agents
2. Antimicrobial stewardship
3. Bacteriology/bacterial infections
4. Clinical trials
5. Epidemiology and statistics
6. Global health
7. HIV
8. Immunizations
9. Infection control/hospital epidemiology
10. Medical Education
11. Parasitology/parasitic diseases
12. Public health
13. Quality improvement
14. Virology/viral diseases

Opportunities exist for research outside of the ID Division?: Yes

Program offers the opportunity to obtain a Master’s degree in a field such as Public Health, Education, Clinical Sciences, or Epidemiology: No