Outpatient US Clinical Experience in Rheumatology in Chicago

What you will do:

This is an outpatient US clinical experience during which you will be under the supervision of a board certified rheumatologist. The physician holds hospital privileges in the Advocate Health Care and AMITA Health Systems. In the past, this attending was involved in the education of internal medicine residents from the University of Illinois.

While training as a fellow, the preceptor was involved in numerous research studies, and had opportunities to present research at national and international meetings. This physician has considerable experience in evaluating and managing patients with SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and osteoporosis and is also adept at performing joint procedures. The practice has an onsite x-ray machine, MRI, DEXA, and ultrasound.

Among the goals of this clinical experience are learning how to:

• Develop differential diagnosis for common complaints in rheumatology using information gathered from the history, exam, lab data, and imaging studies

• Use the differential diagnosis to guide ordering of diagnostic tests

• Interpret common tests (e.g., antinuclear antibodies, rheumatoid factor, synovial fluid analysis) while understanding the usefulness and limitations of the tests

To maximize maximize learning during this experience, we recommend that you read the following:

UCSF Hospital Handbook: Rheumatology/Orthopedics

During your experience, you will learn the following U.S. medical practices under the preceptor’s supervision:

• Taking patient histories.

• Performing physical exams under the physician's supervision.

• Presenting patients.

• Writing progress notes.

• Have opportunities to research the literature to answer clinical questions at the point of care.

• Being involved in patient education.

• Spending time with other healthcare professionals to understand their roles and responsibilities.