Pediatric infectious disease jobs outlook

[Katheudontas parateroumen]

Hello, posting on behalf of my wife who doesn't have SDN (she totally should lol)!

She is looking to do Peds ID fellowship. Her interests are definitely doing inpatient work and if she would do some outpatient doing HIV/TB etc clinic. She also loves global work. She's said that peds ID docs usually need to do mostly hospitalist work instead of ID as jobs are scarce. What are all your guys' thoughts? What is the market like for either PP or academics? Are most peds ID attendings splitting time between hospitalist and ID?

Thank you!

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[FrkyBgStok]

Ive never personally heard of an ID doc splitting time like that. I don't know what the market is for peds ID or where the jobs are as it is an incredibly small field.

my source is doing residency in a community center where we had 2 ID docs who didn't do any hospitalist work and fellowship in an academic center. it really depends on where she wants to practice and what she wants to do. ID is generally an academic job which means your HIV clinics, TB clinics, refugee clinics, stewardship programs, etc. are typically located in larger cities with more academic affiliations. there just aren't enough children with HIV outside of the major cities. Or name your unique infectious disease or at risk population. hospitalists are much easier to come by than ID docs.

 

[Katheudontas parateroumen]

Ive never personally heard of an ID doc splitting time like that. I don't know what the market is for peds ID or where the jobs are as it is an incredibly small field.

my source is doing residency in a community center where we had 2 ID docs who didn't do any hospitalist work and fellowship in an academic center. it really depends on where she wants to practice and what she wants to do. ID is generally an academic job which means your HIV clinics, TB clinics, refugee clinics, stewardship programs, etc. are typically located in larger cities with more academic affiliations. there just aren't enough children with HIV outside of the major cities. Or name your unique infectious disease or at risk population. hospitalists are much easier to come by than ID docs.

It is surprisingly small field! Seems so odd since ID plays a big role in peds. Does anyone think that having a peds ID fellowship make it easier to get a good hospitalist job without that new Hospitalist Fellowship?

 

[Stitch]

If she wants to do hospitalist medicine she should do a fellowship in that. While not everyone doing hospitalist medicine is fellow ship trained or board certified in it, the norm is becoming that. Peds ID is small but people doing ID usually do ID. These are becoming different fields with different responsibilities within the hospital, and fellowship training is specific.

ID jobs are nearly always academic in nature, but there are a few private practice hospitals that need ID docs (MedNax/Pediatrix usually hires). She needs to think about what she wants to do long term that's beyond clinical medicine. Does she have research interests? Does she really like QI and hospital admin (that's what hospitalists often end up involved in). Her best resource is going to be the ID docs at her institution, and she should have in depth conversations with them and with the hospitalists so she ends up in the right place.

There are opportunities for world medicine out of ID, but I don't know those paths and again she should ask the ID docs where she is. There is also a global health fellowship that I know some people have done if she wants to travel abroad. Global health certainly requires a good knowledge of ID.

 

[captianplanet]

First and foremost jobs are not scarce. As Stitch has suggested jobs are centered around children's hospitals which do limit geography to mid-large cities.

There are some people who do ID and also do time as hospitalists, FYI, One of the leaders in pediatric hospital medicine is Peds ID trained. There are even some centers that have a primary ID service that may fit the niche that she is looking for. Though the primary ID service is falling out of favor and I can only think of 1 large center that does this.

One of the bigger differences between ID and hospital medicine is the emphasis on research and FTE devotion. Many larger ID divisions have heavy dependence on research (array of clinical/translation/basic) but FTE breakdown is close to 75% research/25% clinical, while hospitalists is traditionally more clinically dependent. These classic ratios have been changing over the last few years with even large centers offering full-time ID clinical positions and HM having more research protected time, but will still be a point of emphasis during fellowships.

For global health, she needs to determine what is the interest. Is it being in front line working to improve care, or is it working with the disease to find a treatment/vaccine. If she is interested in the pathogenesis and working to understand or develop therapies, this would fall in line with ID. If it is how to implement care in limited-resource setting, may fit better under global health fellowships but some ID fellowships may still fit.

 

[Katheudontas parateroumen]

Thank you so much for the input guys. Good to know jobs are not scarce @captianplanet .

 

[mvenus929]

Ive never personally heard of an ID doc splitting time like that. I don't know what the market is for peds ID or where the jobs are as it is an incredibly small field.

Really? The former program director of the UVA residency program was a Peds ID trained doc who did time as a hospitalist during the year as well (in addition to being the Peds PD, she also ran one of the courses in M1). I'm fairly certain the other ID docs there did as well, or had enough research to support them.

At my residency program, there were 3 peds ID docs. They ended up closing down the fellowship while I was there because the field is so small, but of the three, one did extensive research and got funding through that, one focused on CF and got the pulm department to sponsor some of her time, and the third had some more administrative roles that paid for some of his time.

We have several Peds ID docs where I'm at for fellowship and I know several of them have more administrative positions (one of them is the head person for GME and I think another is one of the APD for gen peds), but I don't interact with them enough to know much more than that.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Really?

Yeah that is my experience. I did residency in a community residency with 2 ID docs and both did clinic/consult services, stewardship, and other outreach, so definitely seeing ID docs in the admin type stuff, just not hospitalist. Now I am in fellowship in an academic center where the ID work as ID docs and admin.