Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship
Program by the Numbers
3-4
Program Years
20
Current Fellows
2
Available Training Tracks
Mission Statement
The Mission of the University of Texas Southwestern Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program is to provide clinical, educational, and scholarly experiences that will equip our graduates with the skills necessary to make lifelong contributions in education, research, and clinical practice within Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and beyond. The training focus is tailored to each fellow's career goals. Our Research track prepares fellows for careers as grant funded investigators in basic and translational sciences; our Clinical track prepares fellows for careers in clinical practice and clinician education. The Program's mission is in alignment with the mission of the sponsoring institution, broadly stated as to promote health and a healthy society that enables achievement of full human potential, by preparing trainees to further that goal.
Subspecialties of the Fellowship Program
- Clinical Center for Sleep and Breathing Disorders
- Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Program
- Interventional Pulmonology Program
- Pulmonary Hypertension Program
About Our Program
- Application Process
Application Process
Fellowship positions are filled through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Applications are handled electronically through the American Medical Colleges’ Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Written applications are no longer accepted.
Applicants should note that we offer two tracks: clinical and physician investigator. Applicants are encouraged to apply to only one of these tracks.
International Applicants
Recognizing that some of our most talented applicants are not permanent residents, we are committed to recruiting qualified international trainees. UT Southwestern accepts permanent residents or J-1 ECFMG sponsored visas. Unfortunately, the medical school does not sponsor H-1B visas.
- Training Tracks
Entry into the training program occurs in one of two tracks: Clinical or Physician Investigator. Successful completion of either track will allow the trainee to meet requirements for certification in both Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. The Clinical Track is designed to produce top-notch clinicians and is suitable for pulmonologists entering careers community practice or clinical academics. The Physician Investigator Track is available for selected trainees committed to a career in academic medicine and focuses training in both clinical and basic sciences.
The Clinical Track consists of three years of training, during which the fellow rotates among different clinical rotations, as well as having research time and concurrent ambulatory care experience. There are 12 one-month rotation blocks each year. The rotations are designed to provide a mix of medical and non-medical ICU experience, inpatient pulmonary consultation, advanced procedure instruction, outpatient consultation, and exposure to pulmonary subspecialties including cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung diseases, interventional pulmonology, pulmonary hypertension, lung transplant, and sleep disorders.
The Fellowship Program emphasizes ambulatory care as well as inpatient medicine. The first-year fellows have continuity clinic in the University Hospital-affiliated Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonary Clinic. Second- and third-year fellows maintain a weekly continuity clinic at Parkland Memorial Hospital in the Chest Medicine and Sarcoid clinics. Both clinics serve as a point of referral for a variety of chest diseases. In addition, fellows will also see outpatients in the VA Chest Clinic, the University Hospital Sleep & Breathing Disorders Clinic, the Parkland Chest Malignancy Clinic, the University Hospital Heart & Lung Clinic, and the Pulmonary Specialty Clinic, during respective rotations.
Trainees who would like to pursue a career in basic or clinical research may apply for the four-year Physician Investigator Track. The goal of the Physician Investigator Track is to prepare outstanding pulmonary physician investigators. This program provides 18 months of intensive clinical training similar to the three-year Clinical Track, followed by two and a half years of research training with greatly reduced clinical effort.
Research training on this track is supported by our NIH T32 training grant, which allows fellows to select from a large, deep pool of experienced mentors drawn from 13 different departments and centers. These mentors provide expertise in a broad array of fields including lipid and protein chemistry, human genetics and genomics, cytoskeletal and matrix biology, signal transduction, endothelial biology and angiogenesis, innate immunity, microbiology, developmental biology, pulmonary physiology, epidemiology, outcomes studies, and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
Fellows may choose either patient-oriented or basic laboratory-based projects, but will be fully committed to training in their chosen area. Each trainee will have a customized advisory committee, ideally consisting of the track head and one basic and one clinical investigator to broaden perspective, dually anchor projects in both science and clinical relevance, expand available resources, and foster bench-to-bedside thinking. Our mentors include one Nobel Laureate, three members of the National Academy of Sciences, and four Howard Hughes investigators.
The structured program includes training in current technology, effective communication, research ethics, and scientific reasoning. Course work from the Graduate School's Division of Basic Sciences or Division of Clinical Sciences is encouraged and paid for. Thematically, four training tracks are offered: pulmonary vascular disease; interstitial lung disease; inflammation and immunity; and lung epithelial cell and differentiation disorders.
- Rotations & Training Sites
Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital is an exemplary public hospital where our faculty and trainees have the privilege of providing care for the most vulnerable patients in Dallas County.
The 2.8 million-square-foot facility has 900 beds, and more than 1 million patient visits each year. Parkland Health is an integrated healthcare delivery system that is the sole safety net provider in Dallas County and includes not only the hospital, the busiest ED in the country by volume, and hospital-based clinics, but also 12 community-based primary care clinics and four outpatient Acute Response Units that provide timely post-discharge follow-up care. It also offers Parkland Financial Assistance, a non-health insurance program that helps eligible Dallas County residents pay for medical services at Parkland locations.
One of the distinguishing features of Parkland is its diverse, underserved populationand the large number of individuals admitted with undiagnosed conditions to the teaching and non-teaching inpatient services.
Rotations
Pulmonary Consult
The Pulmonary Consult Service consists of the fellow and a faculty attending. In addition, there is usually an internal medicine resident (program year two or three), along with a radiology resident on the team. The Pulmonary Consult Service responds to inpatient consultation requests. including all non-MICU intensive care units with teaching rounds held daily. The fellow also performs both inpatient and outpatient bronchoscopy and other pulmonary disease-related procedures such as chest tube insertion and management. Along with his or her continuity clinic, the fellow participates in Chest Malignancy Clinic.
Parland MICU
The MICU/Pulmonary Inpatient Service at Parkland Memorial Hospital consists of the fellow, a faculty attending, and four internal medicine intern/resident teams. There are 20 designated MICU beds. The MICU/Pulmonary Inpatient Service has direct management responsibility for all patients requiring admission or transfer to the MICU (a “closed” unit). The fellow has significant responsibility in the direct management of these patients, performs and supervises ICU procedures, helps supervise the internal medicine residents, and assists with triage decisions. Patients in the MICU have a wide variety of critical care problems and generally have a very high level of severity of illness.
William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital
Clements University Hospital (CUH) opened in December 2014 and expanded in 2020. The awarding-winning, state-of-the-art 750-bed acute-care facility has cutting-edge clinical care and patient experience technologies and amenities. CUH uses innovative design, advanced technology, and best practices to ensure exceptional care. Educational attributes include several conference rooms on each floor with whiteboard and videoconferencing technology, simulation rooms in the ICUs for medical training, and “touch down” areas for informal case and data review. Patient rooms are also equipped with teleconferencing capabilities and each floor has space to support clinical research.
Rotations
Pulmonary Service
The team consists of a fellow, an attending, and four intern/resident teams. All non-cardiac medical admissions to the ICU become the primary responsibility of the Pulmonary Service. In addition, primary lung-related diseases admitted to the general wards also are cared for by the Pulmonary Service. Thus, this team acts as a traditional “chest service.”
Pulmonary Consultation/Procedure Service
The fellow and attending on the Pulmonary Consultation/Procedure Service see all pulmonary inpatient consults, including thoracic surgery patients in the ICU. In addition, the fellow performs conventional bronchoscopies and also regularly assists with interventional pulmonary techniques, including endobronchial ultrasound, airway stent placement, APC electrocautery, rigid bronchoscopy, and pleuroscopy.
Sleep and Neuromuscular Pulmonary Hypertension/Sleep Center
The fellow attends clinic in the University Hospital Sleep & Breathing Disorders Clinic and sees patients with a variety of respiratory control and circadian rhythm disturbances. The fellow also will see patients with chronic respiratory failure due to neuromuscular disease and be familiarized with a variety of noninvasive ventilator techniques. The fellow will also spend one-week learning cardiopulmonary exercise interpretation at Presbyterian Medical Center with one of our research faculty members.
Lung Transplant/Cystic Fibrosis
The fellow and transplant attending care for both inpatients and outpatients for post-transplant care and pre-transplant evaluation. The fellow learns management of immunosuppressive therapy and sees a variety of post-transplant complications, including opportunistic infections and airway diseases. In addition, the fellow will also see inpatients with cystic fibrosis with a dedicated attending. The fellow will attend Parkland Continuity Clinic during this rotation.
Pulmonary Hypertension
The fellow will participate in inpatient rounds with a Pulmonary Hypertension attending caring for both ICU and non-ICU patients. The fellow will participate in right heart catheterizations and attend Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic. These patients provide a large spectrum of disease including rheumatologic, thromboembolic, and vascular conditions.
Zale Lipshy Pavilion - William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital
The rotation at Zale Lipshy Pavilion provides exposure to both pulmonary disease and critical care in roughly equal proportion, with an emphasis on neurocritical care. The service consists of a fellow and a faculty member. All patients are seen on a consultative basis to the medical, surgical, and neurocritical care services, although the typical ICU consult requires very active participation in patient care matters with liberal writing of orders. Teaching rounds are held daily with other ad hoc rounds as well. The fellow performs bronchoscopy, other pulmonary related procedures, and all relevant intensive care unit procedures under appropriate supervision.
Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The 279-bed Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, part of the VA North Texas Health Care System, is the second largest VA facility in the nation. Located 20 minutes from the main campus, the hospital provides primary care and specialty health services and serves as a federal coordinating center for emergency response.
The Dallas VA serves more than 180,000 veterans across 40 counties in Texas and Southern Oklahoma, with more than 65,000 inpatient bed-days of care per year. The Internal Medicine Service has 13 sections, including General Internal Medicine, Hospital Medicine, and 11 subspecialty sections. The facility has a closed Cardio-Pulmonary ICU staffed by academic cardiology and pulmonary care faculty and teaching teams.
Rotations
Pulmonary Consult
The Pulmonary Consult Service at the VA Medical Center consists of the fellow and a faculty attending. The Pulmonary Consult Service responds to inpatient consultation requests, including all non-MICU intensive care units. The fellow again performs all inpatient and outpatient bronchoscopies. Teaching rounds, procedural responsibilities, clinic, and conference participation are analogous to the Parkland consult service. In addition, fellows attend VA Chest Clinic.
MICU
The MICU/Pulmonary service at the VA Medical Center consists of the fellow, a faculty attending, and four internal medicine intern/resident teams. The functioning of this Service is similar to the Parkland MICU rotation. The fellow participates in Parkland Continuity Clinic and the VA Pulmonary Disease Clinic.
Ambulatory Clinics
The fellowship emphasizes ambulatory care as well as inpatient medicine. The first- and second-year fellows will maintain a weekly continuity clinic at Parkland Memorial Hospital in the Chest Medicine and Sarcoid clinics. The third-year fellows will have their continuity clinic at the private Aston Pulmonary clinics. Both clinics serve as a point of referral for a variety of chest diseases. In addition, fellows will also see outpatients in the VA Chest Clinic, University Hospital Sleep & Breathing Disorders Clinic, Parkland Chest Malignancy Clinic, University Hospital Heart & Lung Clinic, and the Pulmonary Specialty Clinic, during respective rotations.
Elective
This rotation allows the fellow to participate in CT chest, PET, and V/Q scan interpretation with Radiology faculty. In addition, the fellow learns PFT interpretation with pulmonary faculty and attends clinic at the ILD referral center. Participation for first- and second-year fellows is encouraged.
- Curriculum and Conferences
Conferences
The following conferences are held recurrently:
- Weekly Clinical Seminar presented by Division members and invited speakers
- Case presentation conferences
- Research conferences
- Journal club
- Weekly multidisciplinary Thoracic Surgery Conferences at Parkland and VA Medical Center
- Weekly radiology and chest CT workshops with radiology faculty
- Didactic Pulmonary Functions and Physiology conferences
- Weekly inter-institutional transplant conference
In addition, a large number of conferences on topics of interest to the trainees are held by the Department of Internal Medicine and other departments.
Professional Meetings
The Division sponsors fellow attendance at both regional and national professional meetings throughout the three years of fellowship, including meetings of the ATS and the ACCP.
- Teaching Awards
Faculty in Excellence Teaching Award
Greg Ratti, M.D.
2023-2024
Carlos Girod, M.D.
2022-2023
Audra Schwalk, M.D.
2021-2022
Traci Adams, M.D.
2020-2021
Paul Lederer, M.D.
2019-2020
John Battaile, M.D.
2018-2019
Hetal Patel, M.D.
2017-2018
Kelly Chin, M.D.
2016-2017
John Fitzgerald, M.D.
2015-2016
Lance Terada, M.D.
2014-2015
Muhanned Abu-Hijleh, M.D.
2013-2014
Won Lee, M.D.
2012-2013
Internal Medicine Resident Teaching Awards
Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Faculty Member
Carlos Cardenas, M.D.
2025
Adam Mora, M.D.
2024
Catherine Chen, M.D.
2023
Rosechelle Ruggiero, M.D.
2021
Bethany Lussier, M.D.
2020
Razaq Badamosi, MD.
2016
Matthew Leveno, M.D.
2014
Carlos Girod, M.D.
2013
Won Lee, M.D.
2011
Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Fellow
Christopher Grubb, M.D.
2025
Brandon Jakubowski, M.D.
2022
Margaret (Megan) Kypreos, M.D.
2020
Carlos Cardenas, M.D.
2019
Bethany Lussier, M.D.
2020
Nathan Tobey, M.D.
2018
Jason Rho, M.D.
2016
Award for Outstanding Research Mentor
Adam Mora, M.D.
2025
What Our Fellows Have to Say
Contact Us
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75390-8558
Phone: 214-648-9095
Fax: 214-648-2575
Program Director
Immediate Past Program Director
Associate Program Director
Associate Program Director for Research
Bruce Hennington, M.Ed.
GME Program Coordinator II