A Welcome From Our Program Director

Welcome to the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria. We are proud to belong to of one of the largest medical schools in the country and to be able to partner with OSF HealthCare, a large integrated healthcare systems that spans Illinois and Michigan. We offer a university-based training experience at a state-of-the art community-based tertiary care teaching hospital nestled in Peoria, Illinois. We are home to all the major residency training programs, many subspecialty residencies and fellowships, as well as our medical school which just welcomed 64 new first-year students to campus in 2019.

The goal of our program is to provide exceptional training to fellows in order to prepare them for years of clinical practice in both Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine. We excel in training by utilizing the many resources available to us through the University of Illinois and our partnership with OSF HealthCare, such as:

• A diverse ambulatory pulmonology clinic experience
• Web-based learning resources, including board review
• Weekly faculty lectures
• Weekly case-based teaching sessions
• A broad range of simulation opportunities at our state-of-the art sim center

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center is our teaching hospital which provides a referral area of over two million people. We are a level 1 trauma center with 649 beds and the largest hospital outside the Chicago and St. Louis metropolitan areas. Our size and referral base provide a comprehensive variety of clinical cases for our teaching services. We have four dedicated ICUs; medical ICU (20 beds), neuro ICU (18 beds), surgical ICU (13 beds), cardiac and cardiovascular ICU (20 beds) with separate, dedicated step-down units. We are proud to have an interventional pulmonary laboratory with full-time dedicated staff, providing the opportunity to offer our patients a wide variety of advanced procedures including everything from cryotherapy and navigational bronchoscopy to cutting-edge endobronchial valve placement. Our department is home to over a dozen pulmonary, critical care, and sleep physicians who serve as dedicated teaching attendings and mentors to our fellows.

Not only does our program offer a superior training experience with state-of-the art facilities and dedicated clinician educators, but we are fortunate to be located in a beautiful city along the Illinois River in central Illinois. Peoria is the largest metropolitan area in Illinois, outside of Chicago and St. Louis. Despite its size, Peoria and the surrounding towns create a family-friend environment and we have intentionally build our program to be the same. We provide generous salaries and benefits in a location with a good cost of living, short commute times, low crime rates and excellent school opportunities. The city draws events, cultural activities and plenty of opportunity for fun and relaxation outside of work. Just over a two hour drive, many of us go to Chicago for a quick weekend trip.

We are very proud of our university, medical center, fellowship program and city. If you are considering specializing in Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine, I welcome you to learn more about our program. Take a look around our website and please contact us with any questions. I look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely,
Subramanyam Chittivelu, MD, FACP, FCCP
Program Director