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Program Details
The Penn State Health Children’s Hospital Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship provides trainees with the experience base and academic training needed to become successful academic rheumatologists.
“My training at Penn State prepared me for diagnosing and treating a good variety of Rheumatologic conditions. It also gave me the confidence to treat new conditions such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome due to COVID-19 infection. I had a very positive experience in my fellowship, and I will always look back fondly on my time at Penn State.”
Pediatric Rheumatologist
Goryeb Children’s Hospital at Morristown Medical Center
Fellows in the program benefit from a collegial core curriculum shared between all pediatric fellowships, in addition to program-specific curriculum that prepares them well for the practice of evidence-based medicine and board exams.
The program’s location in Hershey, adjacent to larger urban areas, provides an interesting mix of ethnicities and disease processes, from immunodeficiency-associated autoimmunity in the Amish to more conventional systemic lupus erythematosus in Hispanic and African-American patients. Fellows benefit from a variety of practice styles from a number of faculty members, all of whom trained at different academic centers. They also benefit from a close collaboration with the adult rheumatology division of the adjoining Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for both their first-year clinical rotation and combined academic conferences.
The program is well-supported by excellent musculoskeletal radiology, pediatric intensive care and pediatric hematology/oncology infusion services. The ready availability of anesthesia services in pediatric procedure rooms and divisional ultrasound resources facilitate management of refractory juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients. Faculty member Timothy Hahn, MD, is a USSONAR-certified ultrasonographer who aims to ensure that all incoming fellows develop a similar competence.
Learn More about the Fellowship
Dear prospective fellow,
Thank you for your interest in our program. We serve a large geographic region with a catchment of approximately 1 million children of diverse ethnic and sociodemographic backgrounds. Our practice model has always involved several outreach clinics that you will be free to experience. We have developed a core of excellent nurse educators who will make your life as a fellow here much less hectic. Community engagement activities such as camp participation and volunteer work at Arthritis Foundation events are encouraged. We will be as interested in your quality of life as your quality of education.
Look us over, and feel free to contact me with any questions. We look forward to working with you.
Timothy Hahn, MD
Program Director
Wellness, including emotional, spiritual, social and physical health, is a crucial component to training and to becoming a professional, compassionate and resilient physician. Self-care is a skill which must be continually practiced and reinforced. Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health are committed to addressing wellness among residents and fellows, with multiple resources readily available.
Institutional resources
- Visit BeWell – a health program designed to support Penn State Health employees
- See Penn State College of Medicine wellness resources here
- Employee Health Care Concierge and Case Management Service
- Partners in Medicine
Moving to a new city with your family does not have to be stressful. Residency programs have assisted many significant others with finding employment. There is also a GME-Wide Partners in Medicine (PIM) group that offers networking opportunities as well as various social and community oriented activities. - The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine
- Active and easily accessed Office of Professional Mental Health
Graduate medical education resources
Departmental and divisional resources
Dr. Natalya Gaffney has taken on a departmental role in promoting wellness activities. As a division, pediatric rheumatology strongly encourages getting out to enjoy the natural beauty of central Pennsylvania by participating in outdoor activities. Division faculty have recreational interests ranging from competitive cycling to dance instruction, hiking and kayaking.
General Application Information
The Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship participates in the National Residency Matching Program Pediatric Subspecialties Match, with one fellowship spot per year.
All application materials must be submitted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) for fellowship applicants. Applicants are encouraged to complete their applications as soon as possible once ERAS opens for the season.
Eligibility
- Applicants must have completed an ACGME-accredited residency in pediatrics or internal medicine/pediatrics before the fellowship starting date.
- Applicants must be board-eligible or board-certified in general pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics.
- Applicants must be eligible for or hold a Pennsylvania medical training license or medical license.
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents or J-1 visa holders (no additional visa types are institutionally sponsored). The J-1 visa application process and fees are the applicant’s responsibility.
- International medical graduates must hold a currently valid certificate from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.
- All applications are reviewed in their entirety. There is no official limit for the number of USMLE step examination attempts or official board score “cutoffs.” However, the number of times the exam has been taken and board scores may impact the strength of an application.
- All applications are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, sex, gender, orientation, disability or family status.
Application Requirements
A complete ERAS fellowship application must contain:
- Personal statement
- Curriculum vitae
- Letters of recommendation: At least three letters of recommendation must be included from faculty members with whom the applicant has worked. It is recommended that at least one letter be included from a pediatric rheumatologist and one from the residency program director.
- Dean’s letter
- Medical school transcripts
- USMLE/COMLEX transcripts
- For international medical graduates, ECFMG certification
Application Review
Applications will be reviewed by the internal Fellowship Application Review Committee on a rolling basis once the ERAS application is complete. Qualified applicants will be invited for an interview. It is advisable to respond to an interview application as soon as possible, as interview dates are limited and may fill quickly.
COVID-19 Update for the 2023 Interview Season
In accordance with national recommendations and in fairness to all fellowship candidates, many of whom are under travel restrictions, in-person visits and interviews will be suspended again for the 2023 interview season.
Pediatric rheumatology division faculty have received a number of departmental teaching awards and are dedicated to fellow education. Faculty members serve as reviewers for specialty-specific journals and contribute to both online and textbook educational offerings.
Virtual Tour
Penn State Health
Penn State Health is an integrated academic health system serving patients and communities across 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. It employs more than 20,900 people systemwide.
The system includes Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and Penn State Cancer Institute based in Hershey, Pa.; Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa.; Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa.; Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Lancaster, Pa.; Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Pa.; Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a specialty provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, in Harrisburg, Pa.; and 2,417 physicians and direct care providers at 225 outpatient practices. Additionally, the system jointly operates various healthcare providers, including Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center and Hershey Endoscopy Center.
In 2017, Penn State Health partnered with Highmark Health to facilitate creation of a value-based, community care network in the region.
Penn State Health shares an integrated strategic plan and operations with Penn State College of Medicine, the University’s medical school. With campuses in State College and Hershey, Pa., the College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of more than $150 million in funded research and more than 1,700 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, other health professions and biomedical research.
Learn more about Penn State Health
Penn State Health Children’s Hospital (left), Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (center) and Penn State Cancer Institute (right)
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
500 University Dr., Hershey, Pa., 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)
- The health system’s 611-bed flagship teaching and research hospital
- The only medical facility in Pennsylvania accredited as both an adult and a pediatric Level I (highest-level) trauma center
- Dedicated surgical, neuroscience, cardiovascular, trauma and medical intensive care units
- Accredited Life Lion critical-care transport providing more than 1,100 helicopter and approximately 750 ground ambulance transports per year
- More than 1,300 faculty members and more than 650 residents and fellows
- Approximately 29,000 admissions, 73,000 emergency department visits, 1.1 million outpatient visits and 33,000 surgical procedures annually
- Designated as a Magnet hospital since 2007
Learn more about Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Penn State Health Children’s Hospital
600 University Dr., Hershey, Pa. 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)
- An eight-story, 263,000-square-foot-facility built in 2013 and expanded in 2020
- 160 licensed pediatric beds, 26-bed pediatric intensive care unit and a 56-bed neonatal intensive care unit
- Level IV (highest-level) neonatal intensive care unit
- Level I quaternary (highest-level) pediatric intensive care unit
- Level I (highest-level) pediatric trauma center designation
- Intermediate care unit
- Dedicated pediatric operating rooms
- More than 150,000 pediatric outpatient visits, 20,000 pediatric emergency room visits, and approximately 5,000 pediatric patient discharges annually
Welcome to Hershey
More About Hershey
Interested in learning more about living and working in Hershey, Pa.? See details here:
Wellness, including emotional, spiritual, social and physical health, is a crucial component to training and to becoming a professional, compassionate and resilient physician. Self-care is a skill which must be continually practiced and reinforced. Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health are committed to addressing wellness among residents and fellows, with multiple resources readily available.
Institutional resources
- Visit BeWell – a health program designed to support Penn State Health employees
- See Penn State College of Medicine wellness resources here
- Employee Health Care Concierge and Case Management Service
- Partners in Medicine
Moving to a new city with your family does not have to be stressful. Residency programs have assisted many significant others with finding employment. There is also a GME-Wide Partners in Medicine (PIM) group that offers networking opportunities as well as various social and community oriented activities. - The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine
- Active and easily accessed Office of Professional Mental Health
Graduate medical education resources
Institutional Resources
Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine celebrate, embrace and support the diversity of all patients, faculty, staff, students and trainees.
Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In keeping with this, Penn State Health has an active Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with various programs, networks and resource groups, including:
- Talks and lectures on diversity, equity and inclusion through the Inclusion Academy
- Regular events on topics such as eradicating racism and creating a culture of inclusiveness
- Many Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs), including:
- Disability Business Employee Resource Group
- Interfaith Business Employee Resource Group
- LGBTQ+ Business Employee Resource Group
- Military and Veterans Business Employee Resource Group
- Multicultural Business Employee Resource Group
- NextGen Business Employee Resource Group
- Black Physician Professional Staff Association – Resource Group
- Hispanic Professional Association
- Asian Physician and Professional Staff Association
- International Workforce Inclusion
- Inclusion Academy
Learn more about the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Learn more about the College of Medicine’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Belonging
Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education
The vision at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health is to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to provide culturally excellent health care and research for an increasingly diverse U.S. population. The Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education was formed to help meet that goal.
Learn more about the Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education
Office for a Respectful Learning Environment
In addition, the institution does not tolerate discrimination, biases, microaggression, harassment or learner mistreatment of any kind, and any concerns are immediately addressed by the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment.
Learn more about the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment
Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows
The Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows (NURF) is a group of diverse residents and fellows representing all specialties. NURF’s goal is to promote cultural diversity in the residency programs through community involvement, mentorship with diverse faculty, professional networking and support for the recruitment of diverse medical students into the residency programs.
NURF is sponsored by the Penn State College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Office and the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Mailing Address
Penn State Health Children’s Hospital
Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship
Attention: Bethany Schwarz
500 University Dr.
P.O. Box 850
Mailcode H085
Hershey, PA 17033
General Contact Information
Phone: 717-531-5458
Curriculum Details
New Fellow Boot Camp
All fellows participate in the American College of Rheumatology-sponsored Virtual Rheumatology Practicum in July and August of their first year.
Rotation Overview
Year 1
- Inpatient consultations – 11 months
- Staff outpatient clinics (five half-days per week) – 11 months
- Fellow continuity clinic (one half-day per week) – 11 months
- Adult rheumatology – four weeks
- Pediatric orthopaedics – two weeks
- Musculoskeletal radiology – one week
- Pediatric ophthalmology – one week
- Physical and occupational therapies – one week
Year 2
- Scholarly and quality improvement projects – 11 months
- Fellow continuity clinic – 11 months
Year 3
- Scholarly and quality improvement projects – 11 months
- Fellow continuity clinic – 11 months
Electives
- AMPS program (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
- Sports medicine for additional injection training
Cassidy Lecture Series
Frequency: Weekly (Mondays or Fridays)
To ensure a solid rheumatologic knowledge base and help prepare fellows for both in-service and eventual board exams, this series works through Cassidy’s Textbook of Pediatric Rheumatology chapter by chapter, with faculty and fellows sharing the task of lecture-style presentations.
Fellow Core Curriculum Series
Frequency: Monthly (second Monday of each month)
The Fellow Core Curriculum Series is a set of two-hour structured didactic sessions occurring monthly. This innovative learning program provides instruction ranging from a core knowledge of research methodology (including research study design, research ethics, grantsmanship, manuscript writing and basic statistical analysis) to topics such as physician wellness, CV editing and negotiating employment agreements. This is treated as protected time during which fellows are free of clinical duties.
Pediatric Grand Rounds
Frequency: Weekly (Tuesdays)
A number of pediatric grand rounds presentations are relevant to care of pediatric rheumatology patients. In addition, additional review of general pediatric topics in the first year of fellowship will prepare trainees for the General Pediatrics board exam.
Combined Medicine/Pediatrics Rheumatology Grand Rounds
Frequency: Weekly (Fridays)
This conference is a composite of topic reviews by fellows, divisional staff and outside speakers; journal article reviews by fellows and divisional staff; and musculoskeletal radiology review of recent studies.
Fellow Evidence-Based Medicine Question Review/Journal Club
Frequency: Weekly (Tuesdays)
This forum is used during the first year of fellowship to present evidence-based medicine reviews generated by clinical questions that arise in the course of clinical care. During the second and third years of fellowship, this time may also be used to review seminal and journal articles in preparation for the subspecialty board exam.
Pediatric Rheumatology Division Meetings
Frequency: Monthly (second Friday of each month)
Fellow attendance and participation in divisional meetings is encouraged. These meetings facilitate interactions with all division staff members and keep trainees abreast of divisional issues, announcements, recent practice data and fellowship program updates.
Renal Pathology Conference
Frequency: Monthly (as needed)
This conference is used for review of interim renal biopsies from systemic lupus erythematosus and necrotizing vasculitis patients.
Divisional Quality Improvement Meeting
Frequency: Monthly (fourth Friday of each month)
Dr. Catherine Bingham leads divisional quality improvement (QI) efforts that align with her leadership role in the PR-COIN network. Fellows are directly involved in division QI projects in addition to developing and completing a QI project of their own.
Virtual Learning Opportunities
The American College of Rheumatology sponsors a number of webinars highlighting both basic science and clinical research topics.
Fellows will have the opportunities to participate in OSCE-style practicums in the nationally acclaimed Penn State College of Medicine Clinical Simulation Center.
All trainees in the Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship participate in a learning program that provides them with a core knowledge of research methodology, including study design, grantsmanship, manuscript writing and basic statistical analysis.
After identifying a research mentor in the first year, fellows design a scholarly project that may involve laboratory and/or clinical research. The second and third years are spent conducting and reporting on this project under the supervision of a Scholarship Oversight Committee. Fellows are expected to participate in data collection and statistical analysis with the goal of developing at least one manuscript for eventual publication.
Research infrastructure at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center includes the Pediatric Research Group, Department of Public Health Sciences, Clinical and Translational Science Institute and laboratory facilities in the adult rheumatology division.
Fellow projects in the division thus far have included:
- A translational genetic study of a patient family with combined immunodeficiency and rheumatologic disease
- A prospective social media-based study examining the themes and impact of journaling in lupus patients
- A translational study combining lab- and ultrasound-derived data in remitted juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients
- A retrospective juvenile idiopathic arthritis database study facilitated by the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)
The program encourages fellows to attend the Pennsylvania Rheumatology Society meeting annually as well as national American College of Rheumatology meetings. These venues provide additional forums for fellows to present their own work, to engage with researchers from other institutions across the country for inspiration, to further their education and to initiate long-term professional relationships.
More information on the research and educational interests of each faculty member is available in Pure, the University’s researcher directory. See all division faculty here; click each faculty member’s name for details on their specific interests.
Camp JRA is a weeklong summer camp for children 8 to 18 years old with rheumatologic disease. At camp, children have the opportunity to participate in traditional summer camp activities and learn about their disease, all while getting to know other children with similar challenges. The camp is staffed by camp counselors as well as medical personnel.
Pediatric rheumatology fellows have the opportunity to attend camp, lead various educational sessions and get to know the campers during activities such as fishing, archery, rock climbing, synchronized swimming and a variety of crafts.
This is an experience that fellows look forward to each summer.
A Penn State Health pediatric rheumatology team participates annually in events that support the Arthritis Foundation, such as the annual Arthritis Walk and/or Jingle Bell Run, which are held locally at various locations.
Fellow Honors and Recognitions
The annual Resident/Fellow Research Day is held each year (with exception of during the COVID-19 pandemic) on and around the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus.
The intent of the event is to provide an opportunity for residents and fellows to showcase their research accomplishments to their peers in other clinical departments, as well as their colleagues in the basic sciences.
Learn more about Resident/Fellow Research Day here.
Previous presentations from the Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship are listed here.
Honors received by trainees in the Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship are listed here.
Latest News from Penn State Health Children's Hospital
Program Leadership
Timothy Hahn, MD
Program Director
Bethany Schwarz
Program Coordinator
