Within the first three months of training, you spend one month studying basic clinical microbiology, gaining hands-on experience in:

• Specimen processing for microbiology testing
• General and anaerobic bacteriology, including blood culture, rapid molecular testing, biochemical testing, and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF)
• Antimicrobial and antifungal susceptibility testing
• Performance and interpretation of Gram stains and other stain techniques on selected specimens
• Diagnostic techniques used in the virology, mycology, mycobacteriology, and parasitology laboratories
• Diagnostic molecular biology techniques, including polymerase chain reaction, rapid molecular test methods, viral load testing, and use of syndromic molecular panels
• Serologic diagnosis of infectious disease

Explore the services, including clinical microbiology, that Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology staff provides for both Mayo Clinic patients and referred samples. You can learn more about Mayo Clinic Laboratories, which is Mayo's reference laboratory.

The general infectious diseases service provides consultation to all Mayo Clinic inpatient medical and surgical services.

You'll gain experience in the diagnosis and management of:

• Community-acquired, nosocomial, and other communicable infections
• Endocarditis
• Device and prosthesis related infections
• Surgical infections, including complex cases in orthopedics, neurosurgical, cancer, cardiothoracic, urologic, and gastrointestinal surgeries
• Unusual conditions or infections, such as fever of unknown origin, parasitic infections, opportunistic infections, non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections, and endemic mycoses
• Hematopoietic stem cell transplant, including CAR-T patients
• Critical illness and intensive care patients
• Hematology/oncology-related infections
• Non-tuberculosis mycobacterial infections
• Ophthalmic infections, including corneal transplant

Specialists at Mayo Clinic Transplant Center perform about 1,000 transplants each year. Mayo's transplant program is one of the largest in the U.S. and ranks among the best in terms of survival rates of patients and organs.

The transplant program at Mayo Clinic integrates services for patients and brings the collective knowledge of all Mayo specialists to bear on the most difficult transplant problems. Mayo's transplant infectious diseases service is an integral member of a multidisciplinary team caring for all solid-organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients.

You'll develop skills on an inpatient and outpatient setting in evaluating the febrile solid organ transplant patient, treating, and preventing opportunistic infections, community-acquired infections, and transplant surgery-related infections. 

You'll rotate for four weeks with Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC). You'll work with infection preventionist and IPAC physicians to learn the principles and fundamentals of healthcare epidemiology and the components of an effective IPAC program. The rotation is structured to encompass a comprehensive overview of IPAC:

• Healthcare epidemiology
• Healthcare-associated infection surveillance and prevention
• Outbreak and exposure investigation
• Instrument processing, disinfection, and sterilization and mobile equipment disinfection
• Quality and safety of air, water, and environmental services in a healthcare facility

During the two-year fellowship, you'll participate in regular continuity clinics in the ambulatory setting to learn the natural history and treatment management of infection, including:

• General and surgical outpatient infectious diseases consultations
• Infectious diseases post-hospital follow-up visits
• Solid organ and hematopoietic transplant infectious diseases consultations
• Travel medicine consultation
• HIV medicine
• Non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections

Fellowship training includes extensive experience in the medical, psychological, and social aspects of infection with HIV and AIDS. You'll learn to manage the longitudinal changes of HIV medicine in a diverse community setting.

You may spend elective time gaining additional research and clinical experiences in:

• Infection prevention and control
• Antimicrobial stewardship
• Global health
• Microbiology
• Parasitology and drug discovery research laboratory
• Pediatric infectious diseases
• Transplant infectious diseases
• Ambulatory infectious diseases
• Travel medicine
• Vascular medicine and wound care
• Off-campus clinical rotations at other Mayo Clinic sites