Undergraduate

Infectious Diseases Elective

The Division of Infectious Diseases provides comprehensive clinical consultative services to a wide variety of adult patient populations at London's academic hospitals. These services are organized as separate programs at each hospital site, and are delivered by a team comprised of an Infectious Diseases consultant, Infectious Diseases fellow(s), internal medicine resident(s), other residents, medical students, and pharmacists. The Division is pleased to offer 2-week or 4-week electives to 3rd and 4th year medical students at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and to visiting medical students from other Canadian Centres.

Infectious Diseases physicians are often consujlted for their expertise in antimicrobial therapeutics and for their diagnostic prowess in solving undifferentiated clinical presentations. The mix of cases referred to the Infectioius Diseases Service iincludes infections of the heart and circulatory system, bone and joint, central nervous sytem, gastrointestinal system, and urinary tract, as well as fever of unknown origin and cellulitis among others.

The inpatient service provides consultation to the Intensive care unit, emergency, and various medical and surgical services..

Outpatient clinics are held at Victoria Hospital, University Hospital, and St. Joseph’s Hospital.

There are no on-call duties for students on the Infectious Diseases Rotation, other than a maximum of one weekend of call per rotation.

By the end of the elective, the student will become familiar with the microbiologic etiology of infections involving different organ systems and in the management of patients with:

  1. HIV and related opportunistic infections, including a basic understanding of therapeutic principles
  2. Cellulitis
  3. Osteomyelitis
  4. Septic arthritis
  5. Urinary tract infection
  6. Intraabdominal/Gastrointestinal infections
  7. Gynaecologic infections
  8. Respiratory tract infections
  9. Head and neck infections
  10. Fever of Unknown origin 
  11. Infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms (AROs).