Fellowship Program Overview

The Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the Augusta University is a 3-year training program granting Board eligibility in both pulmonary and critical care. Each year we choose 3-4 fellows to join our program for a total of 10 fellows in training at any given time.

Our division has 12 full time clinical faculty members (9 at AU and 3 at VAMC) who are board certified in Pulmonary or Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine. Four faculty are board certified in Sleep Disorders and one faculty is board certified in Interventional Pulmonology.  We also have 4 full time PhD research faculty members and additional PhD research associates.

Additional Strengths of the Program

  • Affiliation with Augusta Veterans Administration Medical Center, a major teaching site
  • A regional referral center for pulmonary hypertension with opportunity to learn elective right heart catheterization and vasodilator treatment
  • National referral center for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia
  • Adult and pediatric Cystic Fibrosis centers
  • Georgia Sleep Center with multichannel polysomnography, sleep latency testing, actigraphy and home sleep testing.
  • Interventional bronchoscopy techniques of endobronchial ultrasound, balloon bronchial dilatation, tissue ablation with argon plasma coagulation, electrocautery and cryoablation; tracheobronchial stents; percutaneous tracheostomies 
  • Rotation at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctor's Hospital in Augusta, Georgia
  • Ongoing NIH funded research in vascular biology, ARDS and sepsis
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation rotation at University Hospital
  • Interventional rotation at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, Georgia

Clinical and Elective Rotations


Rotations are generally 4 weeks in duration and include clinical and elective rotations. The clinical rotations are divided between the Augusta University 4-ICU, VA Medical/Surgical ICU, Augusta University Pulmonary consult service, and VA Pulmonary consults service. Fellows typically have 12 months for research and elective training and 24 months of clinical training divided between MCG and the VAMC. Fellows rotate on the trauma service at Augusta University or the Joseph M. Still burn center one month during their fellowship.

Conferences

  • Monday: Critical Care Ultrasound Training (monthly)
  • Tuesday: Department of Medicine "DOM" Grand Rounds (weekly) 
  • Wednesday: Interstitial Lung Disease Conference "ILD" (bi-weekly at 7:30); Multidisciplinary Core Curriculum (weekly - Sept - March); VA Tumor Board Conference (weekly at 12:00); Pulmonary Grand Rounds (monthly Sept - May at 7:30)
  • Thursday: Fellow's conference series (weekly) which includes Journal Club and x-ray conference (monthly); DOM M&M Conference (monthly); DOM Research Seminar (monthly)
  • Friday: Structured Reading Program "SRP" Conference (weekly)
  • Core Curriculum: July and August (Monday - Friday)

Additional Benefits 

  • All first year fellows start at the PGY4 pay grade regardless of prior training or experience.  
  • For additional information regarding salary and benefits click here - https://www.augusta.edu/mcg/residents/
  • Affiliate membership in the American College of Chest Physicians
  • Free Parking
  • Two lab coats
  • Travel to a national meeting to present abstracts
  • Board review course in third year for board candidates
  • Benefits above are subject to the availability of funds
photo of Joyce Gonzales, MD

Joyce Gonzales, MD

  • Program Director
  • Associate Professor of Medicine