Speciality training in Reproductive Infectious Diseases at UBC is designed as a two-year program developed to parallel the requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada by providing clinical, microbiologic and research training. The future goal will be to have this program certified by the Infectious Diseases Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The program attempts to attract candidates who are strongly motivated toward a career as clinician scientists in academic medicine. This fellowship is enabled by a successful partnership with the Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases Division), Department of Paediatrics (Infectious Diseases Division), and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (Medical Microbiology).
The fellowship program provides advanced subspecialty training and education in infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and other infections in pregnancy as well as the evaluation and management of gynecologic infections. The program provides opportunities for fellows to expand their knowledge through teaching, research and care, while developing leadership skills in their respective fields.
It has been recognized that expertise in this sub-speciality area is greatly needed, highlighted by the impact of pregnancy of outbreaks of pandemic influenza, Ebola and most recently the Zika virus.
UBC provides an internationally recognized training and is endorsed by the Infectious Diseases Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Overall the stature and success of the individuals in this area is substantive in Canadian Academic Obstetrics and Gynaecology and are leading opinion leaders contributing to national guidelines, and research that is presented and published nationally and internationally
We have been successful in admitting a new fellow in 2016, Dr. Chelsea Elwood, a UBC graduate in Obstetrics and Gynecology with an already established track record in microbiologic research who has been awarded two competitive awards to fund her fellowship, the Allen-Carey Fellowship and the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network Postdoctoral Fellowship.