The Children’s Mercy Hospital Allergy-Immunology Program is a two-year program.  There is the possibility of a third year of research training.  We have a 50 year history of training allergy fellows. The program offers comprehensive training in the field of Allergy-Immunology providing preparation for careers in private practice or academic medicine. We have a faculty of 7 board-certified allergist-immunologists and 1 PhD researcher who is involved in fellowship education.

As part of their cross-training, fellows spend time in a variety of clinics including the pediatric allergy clinic at CMH, the adult asthma center at Truman Medical Center (TMC), the adult allergy clinic at TMC and working in a private practice setting.  During the second year of training, fellows spend a one month block of time at TMC on the inpatient pulmonary consult service (2 weeks) and in the outpatient rheumatology clinic (2 weeks).  In addition, there are two months of elective time in the second year.

Fellows are involved in teaching medical students who rotate in the clinic and participate in the didactics for the medical student core curriculum.  Fellows are also involved in the education and supervision of pediatric and family medicine residents who rotate through the clinic. They provide additional didactics through a series of mini-seminars developed for the rotation.

Besides a diverse patient population, the fellows have opportunities to work in clinical research, basic science research, clinical pharmacology and environmental assessments.  There is ongoing research in the genetics of asthma, mold and environmental allergy and it’s role in disease, research in disease outcomes, and studies in exhaled nitric oxide to measure inflammation in patients with asthma.  There is also collaborative work between allergy-immunology and other sections in the area of food and drug allergies.  The research experience is divided into block rotations of 1 – 3 months of protected time.  The majority of the research time is in the first year to allow ample time for research project completion and presentation of work at national meetings.