med 610 clinical respiratory diseases & critcare med

Introduction

Welcome to the home page for Medicine 610, the fourth year medical student clerkship in Clinical Respiratory Diseases. As part of this rotation, students will work as part of the pulmonary consult service at one of three sites in the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals system – the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center and the Puget Sound Veterans Health Care System – with the goal at each of these sites being to give students a broad exposure to pulmonary medicine.

Goals and Objectives

At the end of this rotation students should be able to:

  • Take a history, perform a physical examination and initiate a diagnostic work-up on patients with pulmonary problems including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and a variety of infectious processes.
  • State the indications for various diagnostic modalities including pulmonary function testing, arterial blood gases, thoracentesis, CT imaging of the chest, and bronchoscopy
  • Interpret pulmonary function tests including spirometry, lung volumes and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide
  • Interpret arterial blood gases
  • Interpret plain radiographs of the chest and formulate differential diagnoses for the relevant findings.
  • Interpret the results of pleural fluid analysis

Website Content

This website contains a variety of learning materials designed to supplement the information to which you will be exposed at the various clinical sites. You will find resources to assist you in learning how to interpret arterial blood gases, pulmonary function tests, chest radiographs, pleural fluid studies as well as resources to help you learn more about mechanical ventilation. You are encouraged to explore the website and take advantage of these resources. In addition, an extensive library of reading materials covering numerous topics in pulmonary and critical care medicine has been assembled and placed in an e-reserves account which you can access with your UWNet ID. You will find this library to be of assistance in your efforts to gather information about the various clinical problems you are encountering in your work on this rotation and other rotations in which you encounter patients with pulmonary problems. 

If you have any questions or comments about the rotation, do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

Molly Billings, MD
Clerkship Director
mebillin@u.washington.edu

Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Faculty>>