Welcome to the Rheumatology fellowship program at the University of Southern California!
Set in Los Angeles at a top-ranked University and Medical Center, our program blends academic medicine with a long tradition of caring for the underserved. Our division has a rich history, having been started, led, and sustained by giants in our field, many of whom still actively contribute to our program.
Fellows are presented with diverse and complementary experiences at our four teaching sites: Los Angeles General Medical Center, Keck Hospital of USC, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. These settings challenge fellows to learn common and uncommon problems in rheumatology and ultimately become expert consultant physicians.
Our Rheumatology division strongly embraces a mission of caring for the people in our community of Los Angeles. Throughout the two years of clinical training, fellows are actively engaged in continuity clinics and the consult service at Los Angeles General Medical Center, the largest county-based hospital in Los Angeles, where we care for patients with a wide variety of complex rheumatic diseases. This is also the site for a weekly musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic where fellows gain valuable skills in diagnostic ultrasonography, ultrasound-guided arthrocentesis, and injections. At the Keck Hospital of USC, an acute care academic hospital that provides tertiary and quaternary care, fellows lead the consult team and are exposed to the entire spectrum of inpatient rheumatology. There are ample opportunities to actively learn in our faculty’s private practices where patients with more common rheumatologic conditions are encountered.
During their training, fellows learn how to critically analyze pertinent medical and scientific literature to answer clinical questions through weekly conferences and journal clubs. Lectures by core faculty and invited speakers, as well as an integrated board review, form our core curriculum. Our fellows attend monthly multi-disciplinary interstitial lung disease conferences and musculoskeletal radiology rounds as well. Ongoing scholarship through research, quality improvement projects, and abstract presentations is an important part of professional development for our fellows. Many exciting research opportunities exist, including participation in clinical trials, community health or outcomes-based research, or laboratory research with experts in B-cell immunology and murine models of lupus.
Our division is one of collegiality and intimacy. We guide our fellows in a supportive environment and savor their successes. Wellness is an established and critical component of our program. We look forward to building upon our established strengths, retaining the best of our legendary past, and developing new initiatives to successfully meet the future, all while having fun.
Thank you for your interest in USC Rheumatology!
Stavros Savvas, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine
Rheumatology Fellowship Program Director
Director of LAGMC Lupus and Arthritis Clinic
Division of Rheumatology