Pathways: Taking a Closer Look: UICOMP Infectious Disease
Pathways: Taking a Closer Look: UICOMP Infectious Disease
Q&A with Douglas Kasper, MD, Section Head of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine.
Describe the demand for Infectious Disease physicians.
The US is experiencing a national shortage of infectious disease (ID) physicians that has become more pronounced since the COVID pandemic. COVID led to an increase in demand for infectious disease physicians to provide administrative oversight and complex patient care in many medical settings. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) estimates that there is 1 ID Physician for every 34,000 persons in the US, and about 80 percent of US counties have no ID specialist available. Infectious disease fellowship programs are attempting to increase the number of ID physicians in training and offer 450 positions each year across 179 academic programs.
Unfortunately, only 350 positions are filled each recruiting cycle, with about 0.7 applicants for each available training spot. Infectious Disease physicians identify lower salary, increased work duties, and increased administrative/education demands in comparison to other medical specialties as reasons for unfilled training spots.
How has the UICOMP ID team expanded its services to cover demand in the area?
There exists a lack of ID physician coverage in many rural counties outside of Peoria. The traditional model was for smaller hospitals to transfer patients to larger hospitals that have sub-specialty care available. During COVID, hospitals had large inpatient volumes and transferring patients was often delayed or not possible due to no bed availability. To address the timely need for regional ID care, UICOMP ID began providing tele-infectious disease services for both inpatient and outpatient coverage of regional hospitals in central Illinois. To date, UICOMP ID provides tele-ID coverage from Peoria for Danville, Pontiac, Bloomington, Galesburg, Princeton, Kewanee, and Monmouth. The benefit to the patient is timely Infectious Disease consultation to guide care at their local facility and not force transfer to Peoria. This allows the patient to remain closer to their home and family. The benefit to the medical system is reduction in regional transfer of patients to help prevent delays in patient care and ensure the highest acuity patients can access the correct care.
Today, what are ID physicians facing in central Illinois?
Demand for Infectious Disease services has increased in central Illinois. This is largely due to the increase in regional medical care in Peoria and Bloomington as “hubs” for central Illinois. UICOMP ID has seen an increase in the transfer of patients to central Illinois from rural hospitals to include outside of the state of Illinois. This is a welcome change as it has established Peoria as an area of expertise and allowed for growth across medical education, administration, and patient care opportunities. Specific examples include the re-initiation of the heart transplant program at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, OSF opening the cancer center in Peoria, and continued development of outpatient programs at Positive Health Solutions clinics as areas of need for Infectious Disease coordination with other medical specialties. I predict the demand for ID patient care programs to continue to increase as OSF and Carle bring more medical programs into the community.
What’s on the horizon as far as UICOMP Infectious Disease?
UICOMP has exciting news for the future of Infectious Disease in Central Illinois. UICOMP, the Department of Internal Medicine, and the Section of Infectious Disease are preparing to begin an Infectious Disease fellowship in Peoria in the immediate future. Planning is underway for ACGME application to offer an accredited fellowship position as early as 2026. UICOMP ID has identified a program director and is working with academic leadership in the GME office for timely submission of all required documents. We hope the onsite training of an Infectious Disease fellow in Peoria will lead to a local increase in workforce and provide educational benefit across all the training programs supported through UICOMP.
This article is part of the Summer 2025 issue of Pathways magazine.