Combined Healthcare Epidemiology & Antimicrobial Stewardship Concentration
The WVU Infectious Diseases Fellowship offers an optional, 24 month Combined Healthcare Epidemiology (HE) and Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Concentration designed to support fellows in advancing their individual career goals—whether in academic medicine, health system leadership, or community-based practice.
This flexible, longitudinal track is tailored to fellows seeking to integrate infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship into their future practice. Through mentored, hands-on experience, fellows cultivate the skills and insight needed to lead programs, improve patient outcomes, and implement sustainable, high-impact interventions across diverse healthcare settings.
Individualized Experiential Learning
Fellows participate in immersive, interdisciplinary training that adapts to their evolving professional interests. Clinical and operational experiences span:
- Academic medical center leadership exposure at WVU’s flagship hospital
- Health system-level engagement, including policy development and program implementation
- Community hospital application, emphasizing scalable and resource-conscious stewardship and infection prevention strategies
- Interprofessional experiential learning with infectious diseases physicians, infection preventionists (nurses and MPH), and infectious diseases pharmacists
This structure allows fellows to explore how HE and AMS principles translate across practice environments and prepares them to function effectively in settings aligned with their career trajectory.
Skill Development for Future Practice
Fellows build foundational and advanced competencies essential for a wide range of practice paths, including:
- Designing and leading antimicrobial stewardship initiatives
- Implementing infection prevention strategies in both large systems and resource-variable settings
- Conducting surveillance and interpreting healthcare-associated infection data (NHSN)
- Using clinical informatics tools to drive quality improvement
- Leading outbreak investigations and safety responses
- Developing policies that balance evidence-based practice with operational feasibility
Structured Curriculum with Career-Focused Mentorship
The track integrates a structured curriculum with individualized mentorship to support fellows in refining their professional direction. Educational elements include:
- Dedicated HE and AMS topic training
- Longitudinal skill-building in NHSN and stewardship analytics
- Regular didactics and one-on-one mentorship focused on translating knowledge into practice
- Active participation in multidisciplinary committees and leadership discussions
Mentorship is tailored to help fellows align their experiences with career goals in academic scholarship, system improvement, or community-focused care delivery.
Scholarly & Quality Improvement Focus
Each fellow completes a mentored longitudinal quality improvement (QI) project that reflects their interests and intended practice setting. Projects are designed to achieve measurable improvements in patient safety, antimicrobial use, or infection prevention outcomes, with opportunities to scale interventions across the health system or adapt them to community environments.
Preparing Leaders Across Practice Settings
Graduates of the HE/AMS Track are equipped to become leaders in:
- Academic hospital epidemiology and stewardship programs
- Health system quality and safety initiatives
- Community hospital infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship efforts
By emphasizing adaptability, mentorship, and real-world application, this track empowers fellows to shape a career that integrates clinical infectious diseases with meaningful impact at the patient, institutional, and population levels.