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Home News UT Graduate School of Medicine To Provide Education in Pulmonary Diseases

UT Graduate School of Medicine To Provide Education in Pulmonary Diseases

Published: Saturday, March 8, 2008

Lung disease is the third leading cause of death of Americans, and in Tennessee each year, respiratory diseases account for 5.5% of the deaths, the fourth leading cause. In response to this health concern, the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine Office of the Dean announces the launch of a new physician-education Pulmonary Disease Fellowship program. This program will offer advanced training in the subspecialty of pulmonary (respiratory/lung) diseases and disorders, including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), lung cancer, pneumonia, asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung disease and others.

“There is a great demand for pulmonologists in Tennessee,” said Tina Dudney, M.D., Program Director, Pulmonary Disease Fellowship Program, UT Graduate School of Medicine, and Division Chief, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, UT Medical Center. “Smoking is a major cause of COPD, emphysema and lung cancer. Tennessee has the fourth highest rate of smoking in the country, and lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the state. Additionally, the complications of end-stage lung disease are increasing as our population ages. This increase in prevalence of lung disease is occurring when the country, particularly rural areas, is experiencing a shortage of both primary care and subspecialty physicians. The UT Graduate School of Medicine is working to fill the need for physicians trained in pulmonary medicine,” she said.

Only 2.3% of physicians in the state are pulmonary specialists, and about two-thirds of the physicians completing residency and fellowship programs at the UT Graduate School of Medicine stay in East Tennessee to establish medical practices. This fellowship program, one of only four similar programs in Tennessee, is designed to be an important step to improve the healthcare offered in this region.

During the two-year program, physicians will undergo comprehensive education covering all pulmonary disorders. Areas of training will be general pulmonary medicine, sleep medicine, pulmonary rehabilitation, chest radiology, critical care medicine, surgical critical care and cardio-thoracic surgery as they relate to pulmonary conditions. Fellows will participate in focused training in lung transplantation and cystic fibrosis as well as in ambulatory medicine. Throughout the fellowship period, the physicians also will work closely with research mentors at the UT Graduate School of Medicine and potentially Oak Ridge National Laboratory on research projects of the fellows’ choosing.

The program will start on July 1, 2008, and applications from physicians now are being accepted. For more information about the fellowship and the UT Graduate School of Medicine, physicians can visit http://gsm.utmck.edu/internalmed/fellowships.htm.

“The Pulmonary Disease Fellowship program is the second new subspecialty education program initiated by the UT Graduate School of Medicine in just one year, bringing the total of fellowship programs we offer to 10,” said James J. Neutens, Ph.D., Dean. “More and more, we educate the physicians who care for our neighbors as well as people across the nation. As an educational institution in partnership with the University of Tennessee Medical Center, we take seriously our mission of providing advanced education to physicians and dentists, continuing to improve patient care, conducting world-renowned research and being a good citizen in our community.”

Fellowship programs provide licensed physicians with concentrated experience in subspecialties, such as pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease. Subspecialties require 2-4 years of fellowship education in addition to the 9-14 years of medical education required to complete medical school and the subsequent residency period.

The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville is part of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the statewide academic health system. The school is home to more than 200 teaching physicians and researchers; more than 190 medical and dental resident physicians in 11 residency and 10 fellowship programs; and more than 180 volunteer faculty physicians and dentists. The school, together with clinical partner, University Health System Inc., forms the University of Tennessee Medical Center, the only academic medical center in the area. For more information about the UT Graduate School of Medicine, visit http://gsm.utmck.edu.