Clerkship No. 405-103
RHEUMATOLOGY
Location:
St Francis Hospital and Medical Center
Division of Rheumatic Diseases,
Suite 2114, 1000 Asylum Ave, Hartford 06105
Telephone 860-714-5816
Fax 860-714-8237
Farmington Office 860-284-9544
Committee members:
Professor Ann Parke, Dr William Traverse, Dr Cathy Dennis
and Dr Thomas Terenzi
Duration:
1-3 months
Months Offered:
June-September
No. of Students:
2
Prerequisite:
United States Medical Students
Report to:
Dr. Ann Parke, Suite 2114, 1000 Asylum Ave, Hartford, 06105
aparke@stfranciscare.org
parke@nso.uchc.edu
Activities:
Daily Outpatient Clinics are conducted at St Francis Hospital
and Medical Center and in the Farmington Office.
Hospital Consult Service, daily rounds and new consults.
Wednesday Didactic Teaching at UCHC (appendix A)
Friday Didactic teaching at St Francis Hospital and Medical
center (appendix B)
Description of Program:
1. Clinical Elective
The student will attend some of the many clinics that are held every week where they will
start to learn by shadowing the attending and hopefully progress to evaluating and
presenting complicated rheumatological problems to the clinic attending. The many
diseases that the student will see include; rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus
erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome, scleroderma, phospholipid antibody syndrome ,
vasculitis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, infectious causes of arthritis and
osteoarthritis.
The student will learn that many pathological processes can present with arthritis as a
clinical sign ( ie infectious, inflammatory, metabolic and degenerative processes). They will
also learn that rheumatological diseases do not just present with medical complaints but
can directly cause obstetric problems including neonatal pathology.
Students will learn how to diagnose rheumatic diseases by learning about patterns of
arthritis, constellations of clinical complaints, the relevant abnormal laboratory tests that go
with each particular disease and how to appropriately manage these diseases.
The student will be encouraged to complete a publication such as an interesting case report
at the end of the elective.
2. Clinical Research Elective
This elective will primarily consist of a clinical research project during the 3 month elective.
The student will need to decide which type of research project that they would most enjoy
and would need to plan ahead by meeting with Dr Parke prior to the start of the elective.
Currently there are several research projects being conducted in the areas of rheumatoid
arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome , phospholipid antibody syndrome and SLE.
The student would be encouraged to submit an abstract or prepare a paper for publication
based on the research completed during the 3 month elective.
All students taking the elective will be expected to attend in all divisional conferences and seminars
including X-ray Rounds, MRI rounds, Research conference, journal clubs, clinical conference and
other didactic teaching. Didactic teaching at UCHC takes place on Wednesday mornings ( Appendix
A) and at St Francis Hospital and Medical Center on Friday mornings ( Appendix B).
Students taking the clinical elective will be expected to give a 20-30 minute presentation on a
rheumatological topic to the rheumatology faculty and fellows at the end of the rotation. If they
choose the research elective they will be expected to present a progress report on their research
project at the end of the elective.
Description of Patient Population:
The patient population includes patients with; rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus
(SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome, scleroderma, phospholipid antibody syndrome , vasculitis, ankylosing
spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, infectious causes of arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Supervision:
Dr Parke will be responsible for supervising the electives but students taking the clinical elective will
see patients with all of the faculty members in the division including; Dr Ann Parke, Dr William
Traverse, Dr Cathy Dennis and Dr Thomas Terenzi.
There will be 23 hours of direct supervision in clinics each week and at least 3 hours of didactic
teaching per week.
Time allocated for supervision of research projects will be determined according to the nature of
the project and the progress being made.
Evaluation:
Evaluations include;
A. Presentation of a 30 minute topic at end of elective, direct supervision in clinic, discussion
among faculty of the student’s performance with regard to – physical exam, history taking,
ability to put information together, interaction with patients, and overall assessment of
clinical problems and management.
B. Assessment of the student’s ability to develop an appropriate approach to a clinical
research project and to making progress towards obtaining some answers. Students will
also be evaluated based on the final presentation of their work.
Appendix A
University of Connecticut Health Center Division of Rheumatic Diseases
Monthly Schedule
1st Wednesday
7:30 -8:15 MRI Rounds/Teaching
9:00-10:00 Clinical Case Conference
10:00-12:00 Attending Rounds
12:00-`1:00 Radiology Rounds
2nd Wednesday
8:00 -9:00 Board Review
9:00 10:00 Clinical Case Conference
10:00 -12:00 – Attending Rounds
12:00-1:00 Fellow Journal Club
5:30 Rheumatology Grand Rounds
6:30 Rheumatology Journal Club
3rd Wednesday
8:00 – 9:00 Research Conference
9:00 -10:00 Clinical Case Conference
10:00 – 12:00 Attending Rounds
12:00-1:00 Case of the Month
4th Wednesday
8:00 -8:40 Fellow Teaching
8:40 -9:15 Basic Science
9:15-10 am Clinical Case Conference
10:00-12:00 –Attending Rounds
Appendix B
St Francis Hospital and Medical Center Division of Rheumatic Diseases
Monthly Schedule
Gengras Building Suite 1009
1st Friday
8.30-10.00 Rheumatology Grand rounds Visiting Speaker
10.00-11.30 Clinical case discussion and Ward Rounds
2nd Friday
7.15-8.15 Radiology Rounds (radiology department)
8.30-11.00 Clinical Case discussion and Ward Rounds
3rd Friday
8.30-10.00 Journal Club
10.00 11.30 Clinical Case Discussion and Ward Rounds
4th Friday
8.30-10.00 Case of the Month presentation
10.00-11.30 Clinical Case Discussion and Ward rounds
4/2011