The Heartland National Tuberculosis Center (HNTC) is offering Clinical TB Mini-Fellowships targeted to clinicians (physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses) and to nurses (RN, LVNs) who would benefit from participation in an intensive learning experience in the public health medical management of patients with tuberculosis (TB). Our goal is to share TB clinical expertise and knowledge in a variety of settings. HNTC will strive to meet the individual needs of those who attend through assessment of their current knowledge and previous experience and then by matching the attendee’s identified learning objectives with appropriate learning activities. The curriculum is based upon the needs of the attendee; fellowship experiences may last 1 – 5 days. The in-patient learning experience is conducted at Texas Center for Infectious Disease (TCID), a 72-bed facility for the in-patient treatment of TB patients. The fellowship includes the opportunity for one-on-one learning experiences with an expert TB physician, participation in medical/multidisciplinary rounds, and case conferences.

The out-patient learning experience is conducted at the San Antonio Metro Health Department City Chest Clinic with Dr. Barbara Seaworth, Dr. Lisa Armitige, and expert nurse case managers. The fellow will learn evaluation and management of patients (adults and children) with pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB, drug resistant TB and latent TB infection (LTBI). The fellow may also participate in planning and implementing a contact investigation, view directly observed therapy (DOT) and participate in a weekly multidisciplinary case review.

If the timeframe allows, the fellow may also participate in a binational case conference (virtual) with Dr. Barbara Seaworth and nurse consultants (Catalina Navarro, Debbie Davila, and Salma Lerma) at addressing diagnosis and treatment of drug resistant TB disease, exposure, and TB infection along the Texas-Mexico border.