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Fellowship Video

Check out our Allergy/Immunology Fellowship Program Video to learn what makes our training program uniquely suited to your needs and interests!

 

 


Welcome from the Program Director

Dear Fellowship Candidates,

As an ACGME-accredited fellowship training program, our job is first and foremost to prepare our fellows for board-certification and their future careers. At UNC, we see fellowship as much more. We see it as an opportunity to train our fellows to be the independent thinkers who will push our field forward and define Allergy and Immunology for the future.

We start by building a strong foundation in clinical allergy and immunology during the first year. In attending clinics, fellows leverage the vast experience of our 17 adult and pediatric faculty to learn the various approaches to A&I clinical care. By equally balancing adult and pediatric clinics and seeing patients across 4 unique outpatient sites each with their own unique patient populations with regards to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education and disease states, we ensure a broad clinical experience to build this foundation. In the fellow’s continuity clinic, we then provide the opportunity for the fellow to practice what they have learned with the ultimate goal of developing their own practice style, all while learning the longitudinal aspects of A&I care.

Throughout their training, fellows participate in weekly didactic learning that is headlined by our faculty-led journal clubs. These journal clubs may be about cutting-edge science, or the history of certain A&I diseases, or even the research that determines policy and practice parameters. However, the overall goal of all these sessions is the same: for fellows to learn to critically read the literature, to become curious, and to ask “what next?”.

This curiosity feeds into the second year which is dedicated to research and scholarly activity. Fellows build off of the foundation of the clinical year to develop their own research questions and have the opportunity to work with our faculty experts in food allergy, asthma, and drug allergy – both in the clinic and the lab. Strong relationships with GI, pulmonary, and rheumatology present opportunities outside of A&I as well.

We set at high bar at UNC with an expectation that all fellows present abstracts at national allergy meetings and author at least one publication. While many fellows may not ultimately pursue research in their careers, we see research as a way of thinking, and of asking a question and finding an answer. It is this approach to problem solving, whether in patient care, research or education, that we believe will prepare our fellows to be the A&I leaders of tomorrow.

Embedded in the philosophy of our program is opportunity, and as part of training at UNC, our goal is to open as many doors as possible for our fellows. We believe that inherent in opportunity is equity and we are proud of our heritage and passion for embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. We are committed to fostering and sustaining a community in which all members excel in a nurturing and welcoming environment. This is embedded in all aspects of UNC – fellows can collaborate with research teams focused on social determinants of health in our patient population, become involved in DEI workgroups and collaborations within our divisions, and participate in formal DEI educational curricula. We believe that diversity provides benefits for all, as it enriches everything we do, as clinicians, researchers, and teachers.

I hope that I have convinced you that here at UNC, we embrace our role as teachers and mentors, and we take this responsibility seriously. I encourage you to browse our website to learn more about our program and if you have the chance to visit the area, we think you will agree the that the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is an amazing place to live and learn.

Go Heels!

Sincerely,

Edwin Kim, MD, MS
Chief, UNC Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
Program Director, UNC Allergy and Immunology Fellowship Training
Director, UNC Food Allergy Initiative