Message from the Program Director
Program Director
Thank you for your interest in the Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The fellowship is a combined three-year pulmonary and critical care medicine program and is fully accredited by the ACGME. The goal of the program is to provide excellent clinical and research training and prepare the fellows for both academic and non-academic clinical practice. Three fellows per year are accepted for a total of nine fellows. Fellowship training consists of approximately 20 months of clinical rotations, 13 months of electives/research and three months of vacation. The inpatient clinical rotations are divided between UAMS Medical Center and the adjoining John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital, part of the Central Arkansas Veterans Health System (CAVHS).
Our patient population is diverse in terms of pulmonary and critical care diseases as both institutions are referral centers of choice for the state of Arkansas. We have three medical ICUs on our campus staffed with different critical care teams. UAMS has an active stem cell transplant program with a large medical oncology service, solid organ transplant services (liver, kidney), Level 1 trauma services, and a stroke center. Critical care training exposes our fellows to advanced mechanical ventilator management, cardiac device support, bedside critical care procedures, point of care ultrasound (POCUS) education and interventional pulmonology along with airway management techniques.
The John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital provides excellent clinical experience in lung cancer, bronchoscopy, and COPD. McClellan and the UAMS Medical Center have multidisciplinary lung cancer conferences which are attended by Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Thoracic Surgery, Pulmonary Medicine, and Radiology.
UAMS offers the state’s only accredited Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center. We have specialty clinics for patients with pulmonary hypertension, chronic respiratory failure, severe persistent asthma and lung cancer. The division runs full-service sleep and pulmonary function test labs which provide the fellows with experience in those respective areas. There are continuity clinics for the fellows at both the institutions throughout the three years of training.
Little Rock is a medium-sized community. It is a pleasant place to live and work, and the state offers many outdoor opportunities including fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, canoeing, bird watching, rock climbing, and biking. All are available in quantity and quality in Arkansas. Cultural opportunities include the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Arkansas Repertory Theater, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, and more.
The Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine participates in ERAS (Electronic residency application system) for the fellowship program. The applications through ERAS are only accepted for interviews and matching. We are interviewing virtually for this academic year, and we wish you all good luck for the interviews and matching.
Rajani Jagana, M.D., FCCP
Associate Professor
Program Director
Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program
Email: rjagana@uams.edu
Phone: 501-686-5526