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UCI/CHOC Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program

UC Irvine School of Medicine and CHOC Children’s partner to offer a three-year fully ACGME-accredited pediatric infectious diseases fellowship training program. Our program aims to prepare fellows for independent clinical practice, and, at the successful completion of this program, candidates will be able to sit for the American Board of Pediatrics certification exam in pediatric infectious diseases.

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Contact Us

UCI/CHOC Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program
1201 W. La Veta Ave.
Orange, CA 92868

Karen Olson
Program Coordinator
Ph (714) 509-7411

Program Leadership

Delma Nieves, MD
Program Director

Antonio Arrieta, MD
Division Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, CHOC

Program Overview

This program will provide diverse clinical and educational experiences in pediatric infectious diseases including fundamental laboratory, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship skills. With the collaborations between CHOC Children’s Hospital and UCI-based research investigators, we will offer broad-based research opportunities individualized to each trainee’s background and interests. In alignment with the University of California and ACGME goals, we remain focused on promoting social justice and diversity and aim to encourage and increase the participation of physicians of diverse backgrounds.

Fellows in Pediatric Infectious Diseases will participate in a 3-year program which will prepare them for successful careers in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and assure their qualification for the American Board of Pediatrics certifying examination in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. During each year of training, fellows will spend time on the Pediatric Infectious Diseases inpatient consult service (75% time in year 1, 25% time in year 2, 25% time in year 3) and also care for patients in an outpatient setting, evaluating new patients and managing established patients in a variety of infectious disease clinics The remainder of each year is devoted to scholarly activity (25% time in year 1, 75% time in year 2, 75% time in year 3), including a mentored research project and an interdisciplinary quality improvement project. These scholarly activities will be tailored to meet each fellow’s educational and career goals.

Our vision is to provide the highest quality care to children with complex infectious diseases while continuously improving and advancing the field of pediatric infectious diseases. The UCI/CHOC Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellowship training program prepares individuals to excel in clinical infectious diseases as well as become the next leaders in academic pediatric infectious diseases research and education.

This clinical experience will be through inpatient and outpatient rotations at CHOC Children’s, with additional experiences at UCI Medical Center and Orange County Health Care Agency. This will allow the physician to provide pediatric infectious disease consult services to the local community which includes children of diverse medical needs, and social and economic backgrounds.

Background Information and Expectations

The First-Year

During the first year of training, fellows will experience one four-week rotation on the adult ID medicine team at UCI Medical Center, an invaluable experience exposing them to the differences, intricacies and overlap of infectious diseases in the adult vs pediatric setting.

ID Inpatient clinical rotations:

  • Critical Care Units and Hematology/Oncology
  • General pediatrics and surgical
  • A 1-month adult infectious diseases experience at UCI Medical Center
  • A 2-week rotation at the Orange County Health Care Agency to train in epidemiology of infectious diseases (i.e. tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, and other reportable diseases) and, obtain exposure to lab techniques and diagnostics tests available through the health department, and learn about outbreak investigation and mitigation.
ID Outpatient clinical experiences include:
  • The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic</li?
  • Primary Immunodeficiency Clinic – A multidisciplinary clinic with ID, hematology and immunology
  • HIV/KIDS clinics
Fellows are scheduled to be on call, including weekends, for eight weeks each of the three years and will have 4 weeks of PTO scheduled per year.

Research

Training in research and completion of a research project related to pediatric infections is an important component of the fellowship. Each pediatric infectious disease fellow must design and conduct a scholarly project in his or her subspecialty area with supervision provided by an assigned faculty mentor. Fellows will have 20 months of protected time for research that is divided among all three fellowship years but is more heavily weighted toward the second and third years of training as noted above. The project may be basic science or clinical in nature, depending on the fellow’s interests. Research mentors are available through both CHOC and UCI and opportunities for lab research are strengthened by the research excellence of the infectious diseases team from UCI. Fellows will have the opportunity to seek out research opportunities and mentors at both institutions.

The fellowship core curriculum will provide training in biostatistics, lab and clinical research methodology, study design, grant preparation, research ethics and Institutional Review Boards, evidence-based medicine, quality improvement, scientific writing, and various other recommended topics.

Conferences and Teaching

  • ID case discussions (weekly)
  • ID fellows core teaching conference (2-3 per month focused on Peds ID Board focus topics)
  • Microbiology/pathology rounds (twice a month, once as a team, once just with fellow)
  • Journal club (monthly)
  • Fellows core curriculum (monthly)
  • Infection prevention team meetings (monthly)
  • Antibiotic stewardship program meetings (quarterly)
  • Morbidity and Mortality Conference participation with NICU, PICU, and Hospitalist team cases.
Fellows will also participate in teaching pediatric residents and medical students through morning report, noon conferences, Grand Rounds and on the inpatient services.

Our Hospitals

University of California, Irvine
UCI School of Medicine is ranked among the top 50 medical schools in the nation for research by U.S. News & World Report. UCI School of Medicine has 24 departments, ranging from basic science research to clinical, medical and surgical specialties, and research, clinical, and teaching. UCI School of Medicine is the sponsoring institution and serves as a primary site for basic science and translational bench research opportunities. Basic science labs provide ample opportunities for scholarly activity with faculty dedicated to the teaching mission and eager to assist the UCI/CHOC Pediatric Infectious Disease program. UCI is an important resource for educational courses in biostatistics and epidemiology, for example. During their first year, pediatric infectious diseases fellows participate in a 4-week adult infectious diseases clinical rotation at UCI Medical Center where they learn about infectious diseases not as commonly seen in pediatric populations, including sexually transmitted diseases, human immunodeficiency virus care and complications, and multidrug-resistant pathogens.

CHOC Hospital in Orange
CHOC is ranked among the best Children’s Hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report. Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) is the only children's hospital in Orange County, which is the 6th most populous county in the nation with approximately 3.2 million inhabitants. CHOC also serves the surrounding regions with a larger catchment area of more than 5 million people and hence provides a very rich learning environment with a diverse patient population. CHOC is an academic, community-based hospital that serves as the main site for training in the fellowship. It has 334 beds, including a 30-bed PICU, 12-bed cardiac ICU, 72-bed NICU, and separate oncology and neuroscience units. CHOC’s ED is a Level II pediatric trauma center.

The training and education of medical students, residents, and fellows has been a longstanding focus of CHOC. Each year, CHOC trains about 290 residents and fellows from 38 different training programs, along with 190 medical students.

Daily, the typical in-patient consult list ranges from 20 to 35 patients actively followed by the Infectious Disease service, which is divided between 2 attending physicians. The fellow on service is paired Monday through Sunday to work with one of the attendings on service, hence actively following 10-18 patients each workday. New consults typically include 2-4 patients daily. There are a variety of clinical experiences, treating patients with ages ranging from premature infants up to young adults and including normal hosts, chronically ill, post-hematologic transplants, malignancy, and primary immunodeficiencies.

How-to: Applying to the Fellowship

The UCI School of Medicine, the UCI Graduate Medical Education Committee and CHOC’s mission is to establish an inclusive culture and diverse workforce to promote excellence in medical education, research, and patient-centered care. We strive to have representation, that reflects our diverse community, with different race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, veteran status, disability, and socio-economic identities in the general workforce, as well as in leadership roles. We are committed to equity in the recruitment and retention of residents, fellows, faculty, and senior administrative staff.

Qualified applicants can apply through the Electronic Residency Application System (ERAS). 

To further contact us, please refer to Karen Olson, our program coordinator here:

UCI/CHOC Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program
1201 W. La Veta Ave.
Orange, CA 92868
Ph: (714) 509-7411

Clinical Faculty

Delma J. Nieves, MD – fellowship program director, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Publications and research interests include pertussis, leptospirosis, invasive fungal infections, invasive pneumococcal diseases, and infections of the neonate. Dr. Nieves graduated from UW School of Medicine, a pediatric residency at CHOC Children’s Hospital and a peds ID fellowship at Mattel Children’s Hospital/University of California, Los Angeles.

Antonio Arrieta, MD – clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. He is division chief for pediatric infectious diseases at CHOC. Publications and research interests include PK/PD studies, invasive fungal infections and antifungal therapy, invasive pneumococcal diseases, empyema in children, and infections of the neonate. Dr. Arrieta graduated from Universidad Peruana Cayetano, a pediatric residency at Southern Illinois University and a peds ID fellowship at Memorial Miller Children’s Hospital/University of California Irvine.

Negar Ashouri, MD – assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Director of antimicrobial stewardship at CHOC. Publications and research interests include Kawasaki disease and congenital CMV disease. Dr. Ashouri graduated from St. George’s University School of Medicine with a pediatric residency at CHOC Children’s Hospital, and a peds ID fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Michele Cheung, MD, MPH – volunteer assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Medical Officer, Community & Nursing Services, Orange County Health Care Agency. Publications and research interests include MRSA infections, invasive pneumococcal disease, and public health emergency preparedness. Dr. Cheung graduated from Jefferson Medical College, a pediatric residency at the University of California Irvine, and a peds ID fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Jasjit Singh, MD – associate clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Director, CHOC infection prevention and epidemiology. Publications and research interests include vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine efficacy, tuberculosis, drug-resistant organisms, and outbreak management. Dr. Singh graduated from Duke University School of Medicine, a pediatric residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, and a peds ID fellowship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

Aaron Shaw, MD – our newest CHOC clinical faculty to join our program. Publications and research interests include cervical lymphadenitis and deep neck space infections. Dr. Shaw graduated from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, a pediatric residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and a peds ID fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital.

E.R. Chulie Ulloa, MD, MSc – assistant professor, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Publications and research interests include novel therapies for drug-resistant or difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. Dr. Ulloa graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine, a pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital Harvard Medical School, and a peds ID fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Matthew Zahn, MD – volunteer assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. Medical director, division of epidemiology and assessment, Orange County Health Care Agency. Publications and research interests include measles epidemiology, meningococcal disease outbreaks, drug-resistant organisms, and vaccines. Dr. Zahn graduated from St. Louis University School of Medicine, a pediatric residency at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and a peds ID fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Denver.