Pulmonary fellows from medical schools across the Southeast gathered at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University earlier this semester for a hands-on training program focused on advanced pulmonary procedures and technologies. The event aimed to address the ongoing shortage of physicians specializing in pulmonary diseases in the United States, which saw a decrease of 128 specialists from 2022 to 2023, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
For seven years, MCG has hosted this regional training, serving as a center for education in new pulmonology techniques. The program emphasizes exposure to innovative tools such as robotic bronchoscopy and high-fidelity simulations designed to improve procedural skills outside traditional patient care settings.
“When I was a fellow and I did my training years ago, we were just told to see the patient, do the procedures and then teach it. See one, do one, teach one,” said Shaheen Islam, MD, professor of medicine and division chair and director of Interventional Pulmonology at MCG. “But the problem is those are difficult procedures. When I became an attending physician, my whole idea was to give new fellows training away from the patients in a simulated environment – they can practice as long as they want, so they’re ready to take care of those patients.”
Nearly 40 fellows from institutions including MCG, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and Columbia, University of Florida Jacksonville, Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine participated in practical sessions held at J. Harold Harrison, MD Education Commons and laboratory facilities.
Participants learned various techniques such as airway management, infection diagnosis within lungs, foreign object removal from airways, and chest tube placement. Christopher Aguirre, DO, a pulmonary critical care medicine fellow at MCG noted: “It’s very eye-opening – there are so many new non-invasive ways to do different biopsies or techniques. It’s a very great course early on in our fellowship to get an overview of every type of procedure and every type of device because here’s like 10 of everything to get familiar with and to get used to using before you’re out there practicing in the real world.”
Aguirre also highlighted his experience with robotic bronchoscopy: “It feels like I’m playing video games again. It’s a really cool device, and it’s going to be used more widely because it’s so noninvasive. The old way was doing a CT-guided biopsy coming from the outside of the body – now we can use this robotic bronchoscopy and reach the outer portions of the lungs that used to be impossible to get to.”
Fellows who began their programs on July 1 will complete about three years before board certification. Beyond technical skill development, attendees valued networking opportunities that could lead to future collaborative research projects among participating institutions.
Faculty members acted as instructors during these sessions. Steven Allen, MD—an interventional pulmonologist at MCG—emphasized that not all represented schools offer specialized pulmonary courses like those available at MCG: “We actually do a feedback session for all the fellows, and for the most part everybody says it’s a good experience. Going into it; a lot of them think it’s going be super basic with couple lectures but then they are quite surprised when they get good hands-on experience.”
George Carter MD—a pulmonologist at MUSC—described efforts toward integrating more simulated exercises into training: “We were in cadaver lab…but we now have lot high-fidelity simulations…where they’re able replicate some those procedures way that we can observe them do it give them feedback prepare them for doing it real life.”
Islam stated that typically half participants remain in region post-fellowship which benefits local healthcare access: “One; we’re giving them more diverse opportunity learn And two; I think this also creates reputation for MCG Southeast region all those programs continuing send their fellows here.” He expressed hope for continued growth expansion future events.
