Thank you for your interest in Pediatric Rheumatology fellowships at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. 

This multifaceted division had its inception in 1971, with new components, personnel, and projects continually being incorporated.  The Division of Rheumatology is composed of 27 people, including 5 full-time faculty members who interact in the clinical and laboratory programs, as well as with Northwestern's NIH Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease Center, headed by Richard Pope, MD. The Immunology Diagnostic Laboratory is directed by Maurice O'Gorman, PhD, who also heads the Flow Cytometry Laboratories at Children's Memorial Hospital.  Other contributors include Charles Sisung, director of the pediatric unit at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, who attends one clinic per month as a consultant.

Outpatient visits number over 3,000 per year.  In the 2004-2005 academic year, faculty saw 462 new outpatients and 130 inpatients.  In this patient population, about 50 children have primary immunodeficiency disease.  Although the majority of children have a rheumatic disease and travel from a five state area, about 20 to 30 patients per year travel significantly longer distances for advice. 

The division utilizes a team approach to patient care.  Members of the team include professionals in social work, physical and occupational therapy (access to a pediatric gait lab is possible), and a team of three skilled nurses, including a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.  The patient database is computerizes and linked to the sera bank which contains over 20,000 sera gathered over the past 20 years.

Areas of research encompass:

• Health Services Research, including analysis of economic and psychological factors affecting children with chronic illness
• Molecular genetics of Rheumatic and Immunodeficiency disease
• Epidemiology of Rheumatic diseases
• Pharmacokinetics of corticosteroid metabolism
• Characterization of the immune and vascular response in children with Juvenile Dermatomyositis

Within the Chicago area, we have active scientific and clinical interaction.  The Chicago Rheumatism Society and Chicago Association of Immunology each have a member list of about 150; both meet five times per year or more. 

The three-year program duration and training content are in accordance with the guidelines suggested by the Residency Review Committee for Pediatrics.  The first year of training is weighted to clinical training (9 months); in the second and third years, between 75 and 80 percent of time is allocated to research.  Please contact our division for more information regarding our fellowship, or for an application.