The overall goal of our conferences is to foster learning and engender discussion about topics pertinent to the practice of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. We strongly believe in teaching based on the principles of evidence-based medicine, defined as integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.

Our conferences include the following:

► Journal Club

• Frequency: Monthly - One Friday a Month (12 p.m.)

• Description: Friday's Journal Club is organized by the Chief Fellow with a faculty mentor (Dr. Rafael Perez). Recent publications pertinent to Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine are reviewed. The goal of this exercise is to teach fellows how to critically review research articles, and will utilize the JAMA criteria on reviewing the medical literature.
  
  Particular attention will be given to review of clinical trials in regard to study design and statistical analysis. The fellows will be expected to learn the principles of study design, power analysis, statistical comparison of parametric and non-parametric measures, confidence intervals, relative risk, and life table and survival analysis. The fellow will also gain experience in different methods of data presentation and the applicability of medical research to patient care.

► Research Conference

• Frequency: Monthly - One Friday a Month (12 p.m.)
• Description: The Research Conferences is organized by the Division Chief and is devoted to updates on both clinical and basic science research. Speakers are from within the Pulmonary/Critical Care division, from other departments on campus, and from other universities.  The fellows will be expected to present their research once per year.

► Core Curriculum Conference

• Frequency: Weekly - Every Tuesday (1 p.m. first six months, 12 p.m. thereafter)
• Description: The Core Curriculum Conferences are organized by the Chief Fellow and Dr. Perez (with guidance from the Program Director and the Division Chief) and involve a set series of rotating topics, specified by the Program Director and conforming to the ACGME topic requirements, over a three-year period. The lectures are given on a variety of Pulmonary and Critical Care topics given by faculty from both the Division, as well as other departments on the Medical center campus. In the first six months of each academic year, the fellows are expected to attend a physiology and pathophysiology lecture following the didactic conferences.

► Clinical Case Conference

• Frequency: Weekly - Every Thursday at 12 p.m.