Program Overview
1st-year fellows
First-year fellows are based at the Georgia Poison Center and provide telephonic medical toxicology consultative services for all hospitals in the state of Georgia.
Bedside medical toxicology consultative services are provided at five hospitals in the Atlanta region and include:
- Grady Memorial Hospital
- Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital
- Arthur Blank Children’s Hospital
- Emory University Hospital
- Emory Midtown Hospital
Fellows are trained in a variety of areas including bedside evaluation and care of poisoned patients, management of patients with substance use disorder, poison center activities and management, preventive toxicological practice, environmental and occupational outpatient consultation, and toxicological and epidemiological research.
2nd-year fellows
Second-year fellows have reduced clinical responsibilities affording additional time to work on research/scholarly projects and international activities. Additional training opportunities include epidemiology, statistics, scientific writing, medical management of biologic, radiologic and chemical casualties, and much more. Lastly, there is a focus developing skills as an educator of medical toxicology.
Training
The fellowship will involve both clinical activity and research. Our program's clinical emphasis is designed to help fellows' practice skills grow and mature. Upon completion, fellows are on their way to becoming independent investigators.
Clinics
- Georgia Occupational and Environmental Toxicology Clinic
- First year fellows evaluate patients with occupational and environmental exposures on a weekly basis
- Only Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) affiliated toxicology clinic in the Southeastern United States
Opioid Use Disorder Clinic
First and second year fellows help management patients with OUD in this outpatient clinic. The clinic offers comprehensive treatment including therapy with licensed counselors and medication therapy with buprenorphine and naltrexone.
Multidisciplinary Training Opportunities
The Georgia Poison Center also has a PharmD Clinical Toxicology fellowship training program. There are fewer than 10 of these programs in the United States, which provides our Medical Toxicology fellows with valuable multidisciplinary training opportunities.
As a result of this breadth of experience, the program's physicians and scientists in Medical Toxicology offer fellows uniquely well-rounded training in a variety of areas:
- Bedside evaluation and care of poisoned patients
- Bedside evaluation and care of patients with substance use disorder
- Addiction medicine outpatient clinic
- Working with a diverse patient population in diverse clinical settings
- Poison center activities and statewide consultation
- Preventive toxicological practice
- Environmental and occupational outpatient consultation
- Environmental public health research
- Toxicant-related problems in international settings
- Toxicological and epidemiologic research
Mentors
Fellowship mentors come from a wide range of fields including:
- Addiction medicine
- Emergency medicine
- Emergency preparedness and response
- Environmental and occupational medicine
- Epidemiology
- Forensic toxicology
- Health policy
- Laboratory medicine
- Pediatrics
- Pharmacology
- Preventive medicine
- Public health surveillance
- Radiation medicine
Training Courses
Fellows have the opportunity to complete multiple training courses during their fellowship, including:
- Advanced Hazmat Life Support
- Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
- Explosions and Blast Injuries
- Radiological Preparedness and Emergency Response
- Nuclear Plant Emergency Response
- Research Boot Camp
- Scientific Writing
- PrOUD
Public Health Emergency Training
Fellows are extensively trained in numerous areas important for public health emergency response. The fellows have received training in:
- HAZWOPER
- HAZCAT
- REAC/TS
- Weapons of Mass Destruction Technical Emergency Response
They have hands-on experience in chemical and radiological decontamination, all levels of personal protective equipment including the proper use of a respirator, and use of detection equipment for chemical and radiological agents.