Conferences

There are several pulmonary specific conferences scheduled each week, which cover both clinical practice and research topics. All fellows attend these conferences. Fellows must attend at least 80% of conferences over the 3-year fellowship in order to be eligible for graduation.

► Lousiville Lectures - PCCM Lecture Series

Black circle with red and white lung graphic

We are excited to announce the launch of a new lecture series within our Louisville Lectures series: Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine! Our Louisville Lectures site has hosted quality lectures delivered by University of Louisville Faculty since 2014. It has been wildly popular with millions of viewers through our LouisvilleLectures.org website and YouTube. Many faculty within the pulmonary department have been featured over the years and now, our fellow-level lectures are being published as well.

Here is our Louisville Lectures PULM-CRIT Home Page, new content will be published monthly. We are thrilled  to share the stellar teaching happening here at University of Louisville with our colleagues from around the world.  

This is possible due to efforts from Ashlea Worner, Dr. Juan Galvis, Dr. Hiram Rivas-Perez, Victoria Roman and Dr. Laura Bishop who have collaborated over the past eight months to build this resource.

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 Dr. Hiram Rivas. 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 with Dr. Rivas (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.