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The Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology provides inpatient infectious diseases care as well as a consultative service to all units across Austin Health.
Annually, the department provides 1100-1200 formal inpatient consults and cares for 150-200 infectious diseases inpatients.
The Infectious Diseases and Immunology Department has close links to the Departments of Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Control, and the 3 groups operate within Austin Health as a coordinated team. We have a strong emphasis on clinical excellence and research relating to infection control, public health, microbiology and clinical infectious diseases.
We currently have 3 advanced trainees in Infectious Diseases and 1 advanced trainee in Clinical Immunology, supported by a PGY3 and a PGY2 resident. We are also supported by an advanced trainee in General Medicine on rotation to Infectious Diseases. The Department of Microbiology also supports a dual trainee in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. Almost all Infectious Diseases consultants hold or are enrolled in higher research degrees (PhD/MD) and a number of our consultants are dual-trained in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology.
Our program is accredited with the RACP Infectious Diseases SAC for core Advanced Training in Infectious Diseases and with the RCPA Microbiology Committee for core training in Clinical Microbiology.
There are two registrar positions for 12 months core ID, and two positions for 6 months core ID/6 months microbiology.
Clinical ID rotations are divided into:
All clinical ID registrars are also responsible for antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial approvals.
Infectious Diseases physicians attend a number of general and specialist infectious diseases clinics, including:
Registrars are expected to participate in a number of these clinics for both service provision and advanced training.
In general, registrars are encouraged to maintain continuity of care of their own patients in clinic, with close consultant supervision.
The advanced trainee in Clinical Immunology will be responsible for immunology consults in hospital patients (eg. drug allergy, immunodeficiency) and will attend a range of Drug and Antibiotic Allergy clinics.
The trainee will participate in the weekly multidisciplinary ‘penicillin allergy’ antimicrobial stewardship round.
Austin Health provides 24/7 on-call support for Infectious Diseases. Registrars share the on-call duties, usually covering one night during the working week, and 1 in 4 weekends, depending on holiday/conference staffing. Registrars are remunerated for all rostered on-call and if required, additional re-call. It is generally expected that during rostered weekends on-call, registrars come in on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but re-call is otherwise variable.
In accordance with RACP and RCPA requirements, each registrar is expected to select and complete a project each year. Registrars will be assisted and supervised with their projects, with the aim of presenting findings at a local and/or international conference, and publishing results in a peer reviewed journal.
Melbourne Infectious Diseases Group meets via Zoom on alternate Tuesday mornings. Consultants and registrars from Austin attend and actively participate in the presentation roster. In addition, registrars are encouraged to attend other local meetings such as the Immunocompromised Host meetings every three months.
Consultants and registrars generally attend one of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID), the Australian Society for Antimicrobials (ASA), or the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM) annual conferences each year and are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation. Registrars who have abstracts accepted will receive support from the department to attend and present their work.
Consultants and registrars generally attend one of ECCMID, ICAAC, or ID week (IDSA) and are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation. Registrars who have abstracts accepted will receive support from the department to attend and present their work.
To apply for an advanced training position in Infectious Diseases/Microbiology, you must:
There is a centralised process and program that governs the application and appointment of Infectious Diseases core accredited advanced training positions in Victoria.
There are several steps in the application process:
Apply to the Victorian ID Training Program by emailing the match coordinators: vicidtrainingprogram@gmail.com
Apply via PMCV Allocation and Placement Service for RACP All Specialty Matches (scroll to Infectious Diseases).