Subspecialty and Interdisciplinary Clinics
Duke offers multiple interdisciplinary clinics, which provide patients with cutting-edge, integrated medical services. This dedicated exposure to rare and complex diseases significantly enhances our fellows’ education and expertise by providing:
- experience in treating back-to-back cases of a single disease process to facilitate the development of nuanced illness scripts that are sensitive to subtle clinical differences;
- experience in a structured practice inclusive of disease-specific best practices;
- interactions with colleagues from a wide variety of interdisciplinary subspecialties, providing an indepth understanding of a broad spectrum clinical best practices.
Duke pediatric rheumatology currently offers the following interdisciplinary clinics:
Autoimmune Brain Disease Clinic
An interdisciplinary clinic run jointly by pediatric rheumatology, pediatric neurology, and pediatric psychiatry. This unique clinic receives patients from many states and cares for a wide array of autoimmune encephalitis patients as well as patients with neurologic manifestations of other rheumatic diseases, such as neuro-Behcet’s. While many practicing pediatric rheumatologists are inexperienced in caring for complex neuro-inflammatory conditions, Duke pediatric rheumatology patients benefit from receiving treatment from physicians who have dedicated exposure and training in this arena.
Lupus Clinic
An interdisciplinary clinic run jointly by pediatric rheumatology and pediatric nephrology. This unique clinic facilitates the care of complex lupus nephritis patients--streamlining screening and vaccination best practices for lupus patients, including incorporating a social worker and nutritionist into the treatment regime.
Myositis Clinic
An interdisciplinary clinic run jointly by pediatric rheumatology and pediatric neurology, inclusive of an on-site, dedicated pediatric physical therapist. This clinic has been designated as one of four national JM Centers of Excellence by the Cure JM Foundation.
Uveitis Clinic
An interdisciplinary clinic run jointly by pediatric rheumatology and pediatric ophthalmology, facilitating the integrated diagnosis and treatment of anterior uveitis.
Young Adult Rheumatology Clinic
An interdisciplinary clinic run by a dually-trained adult and pediatric rheumatologist in conjunction with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Healt. This clinic is designed to ensure that older adolescent and young adult patients with pediatric-onset rheumatic diseases transition smoothly to adult care and receive integrated mental health care, contraceptive services, and primary care.
Sedated Joint Injection Clinic
A clinic coordinated with anesthesia services that allows young children to undergo conscious sedation for intraarticular joint injections. This clinic takes place twice per month, and first-year fellows are assigned to a minimum of 10 joint injection clinics during their first year to develop proficiency with intraarticular joint injection early during their training.
Carolina Fellows Collaborative
The Duke Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship Program pays for first- and second-year fellows to attend a “rheumatology boot camp” conference held each July in Winston-Salem, NC. This conference is hosted by the adult rheumatology program directors from Duke, MUSC, UNC-CH, and Wake-Forest exclusively for adult and pediatric rheumatology fellows from these respective institutions. In addition to didactics, the conference includes hands-on injection workshops, physical exam workshops, and a crystal identification workshop. This conference represents an extraordinary, high-yield learning opportunity for fellows.
Fellows’ Core Curriculum
Pediatric rheumatology fellows join with other subspecialty pediatric fellows throughout the department for an 18-month conference series dedicated to teaching topics that are important to all academic pediatricians, including critical review of the literature, IRBs and research ethics, principles of biostatistics, medical education skills, and complex patient communication skills, including working with challenging patients and giving bad news. Conferences take place once per week and help create a sense of community among the various pediatric subspecialties, while covering topics common to all pediatric subspecialty boards. Through this seminar, senior fellows also have the opportunity to present their research findings to their colleagues.