SYMPOSIUM POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Of course, many potential suggestions have been made to remedy the lack of ID interest. Linking ID fellowship to a year of critical care fellowship has been proposed, and Kadri et al10
have
reported this combination has yielded a high level of satisfaction, even among fellows who have completed this training in separate institutions. Separating ID consultation careers from the primary care of HIV patients would be attractive to some fellows. Those more interested in primary care and those considering a career in general internal medicine might be happier in an HIV clinical practice, while others might prefer the old- time acuity of care that ID used to represent. ID training could be supplemented
by a master’s degree in public health (MPH), perhaps giving the fellow a wider range of practice options. Several ID fellowship programs offer this MPH option or include the option of certificates in global health or traveler’s health. Medical school administrators choose their faculty, their students, and their curriculum and define their mission. When students graduate and choose a distribution of fields that is not in the best interest of the coun- try’s manpower needs, the nation’s medical schools have some respon- sibility to right the ship. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine and 11 other medi- cal schools have worked to develop a family medicine accelerated track to encourage students to choose a career in family medicine. The program has increased the percentage of students going into family medicine dramati- cally. The need to address shortages in geriatrics and psychiatry may also create innovative solutions in these areas.
CONCLUSION
The recognition of an impending shortage of ID physicians is relatively new. Cleary, it will lead to a variety of
62 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2017
innovative ideas and new programs that will focus on mentoring and fair payment for the unique role the ID physician plays now and will assume in the future. It will also involve find- ing the best students early on in medi- cal school, presenting ID’s exciting challenges, and identifying add-on roles and responsibilities that are rec- ognized and reimbursed, such as pub- lic health and antibiotic stewardship. Charles Bryan11
wrote a tribute to
Sir William Osler, MD, in an essay titled “Fever, Famine, and War: Wil- liam Osler as an Infectious Disease Specialist.” He quotes Dr. Osler as saying, “Man’s redemption of man is nowhere so well known as in the abo- lition and prevention of a group of dis- eases which we speak of as fevers and acute infections. This is the glory of the science of medicine.”12
Specialties
over the next century will come and go, but the future of ID is secure.
Steven L. Berk, MD, is executive vice president, provost, and dean of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine.
REFERENCES
1. Dr. 99. ID’s Epic Consult Note Starts with “Once Upon a Time.” Gomerblog. July 16, 2016:
http://gomerblog.com/2016/07/ epic-consult-once-upon-a-time/.
2. Chandrasekar PH. Bad news to worse news: 2015 infectious diseases fel- lowship match results. Clin Infect Dis. 2015;60(9):1438.
3. Bonura EM, Lee ES, Ramsey, K, Arm- strong S. Factors influencing internal medicine resident choice of infectious diseases or other specialties: a national cross-sectional study. Clin Infect Dis. 2016;63(2):155–163:
4. Southwick FS. Theodore E. Woodward Award: spare me the PowerPoint and bring back the medical textbook. Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 2007;118:115–122.
5. Southwick F, Katona P, Kauffman C, et al; Infectious Diseases Society of America Preclinical curriculum Committee. Com- mentary: IDSA guidelines for improving the teaching of preclinical medical micro- biology and infectious diseases: Acad Med. 2010;85(1):19–22.
6. Calderwood SB. The power of mentoring: we all can help recruit more ID specialists.
Infectious Disease News. February 2015.
http://www.healio.com/infectious-dis ease/practice-management/news/print/ infectious-disease-news/%7B6ba48a83- 9bd6-4988-b02e-99ff73ba29f4%7D/the- power-of-mentoring-we-all-can-help- recruit-more-id-specialists
7. Fauci AS, Morens DM. The perpetual challenge of infectious diseases. N Engl J Med. 2012;366(5):454–461.
8. Bartlett JG. Why infectious diseases. Clin Infect Dis. 2014;59 Suppl 2:S85–S92.
9. Kearns M. Which specialty produces the happiest doctors? Medical Practice Insider. April 24, 2015.
http://www.medi
calpracticeinsider.com/news/which-spe cialty-produces-happiest-doctors.
10. Kadri SS, Rhee C, Magda G, et al. Synergy, salary, and satisfaction: benefits of train- ing in critical care medicine and infec- tious diseases gleaned from a national pilot survey of dually trained physicians. Clin Infect Dis. 2016;63(7):868–875.
11. Bryan CS. Fever, famine, and war: William Osler as an infectious diseases specialist. Clin Infect Dis. 1996;23(5):1139–1149.
12. Osler W. Man’s Redemption of Man. New York, NY: Paul B. Hoeber; 1913.
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