The UC Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship is committed to promoting diversity, equality, and inclusivity among our fellows and within the program as a whole. We accept all identities, beliefs, and orientations and strongly feel that diversity in our program improves our experience in training and the care we provide to our patients.

We are fortunate to have strong divisional support behind all aspects of the fellowship, but this initiative is of particular import to the faculty. The UC PCCM division has a faculty DEI subcommittee that meets regularly to discuss ways that our department’s composition can reflect a more diverse background. It is also examining patient outcomes in the ICU and clinic as a function of gender and ethnicity to determine if these may play a role in our care delivery. Fellows are invited to be a part of this committee.

We regularly conduct allyship discussion sessions within the fellowship and as faculty development. These sessions are curated, organized and led by former fellow (and now faculty) Melanie Dalton. The goal of these sessions is to present challenging cases of unconscious/implicit bias and discuss how we, as trainees, teachers, and physicians, may better approach them. Dr. Dalton also spearheads our new DEI Journal Club initiative, which aims to add DEI-minded medical literature review to the fellowship curriculum.