For Doctors and Medical Professionals

Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) is a close-knit community that takes pride in providing resources for our physicians and residents. The Division of Rheumatology is committed to sharing medical knowledge and insights for practicing physicians, residents and other health professionals.

Special Events

The Division of Rheumatology headed up the Musculoskeletal Ultrasound module, along with Dr. Christopher Jobe (Orthopedics) at the Ultrafest 2015, organized by the LLU School of Medicine’s Ultrasound Special Interest Group (SIG), February 22, 2015. This year’s Ultrafest was attended by medical students from LLU, UCI, UCLA, Stanford, USC and Western Health Sciences.

Dr. Michelle Ngo (fellow) garners 2nd place in the Basic Science category of the 2015 Annual Postgraduate Convention of the LLU School of Medicine; Kudos to Dr. Abigail Benitez and Dr. Michael De Vera (Transplantation Immunology) for their collaboration!

Dr. Michelle Ngo bags 2015 Bevra Hahn Scholarship Award sponsored by California Rheumatology Alliance.

Dr. Joe Gamboa (fellow) presents abstracts/posters at ACR 2014 Annual Meeting (Boston, Nov 2014), RWCS-Hawaii (Feb 2015), APC-LLU Medicine 2015

Fellows and Faculty author upcoming rheumatology chapters in Kochar’s Clinical Medicine for Students (6th Ed)

Information for Residents and Medical Students

Please contact: 

Dottie Acosta
Fellowship Program Coordinator
Division of Rheumatology
Department of internal Medicine
Loma Linda University Medical Center
11234 Anderson St., Room 1533
Loma Linda, CA 92354
Phone:  (909) 558-4911
Fax:  (909) 558-4825
Email:dacosta@llu.edu

We offer a variety of educational experiences, and a wide diversity in patient populations.

We have Rheumatology clinics at LLU’s faculty medical offices (FMO), at Riverside Regional Medical Center (RCRMC) and the Loma Linda VA Healthcare System. We do inpatient consults at Loma Linda University Medical Center, RCRMC, and LLVAHS.

We also offer a variety of conferences covering many topics and utilizing different formats. If you are a visiting resident, we encourage that you also take advantage of attending these conferences.

If you have a specific area of interest or need, we also would like to hear from you at the start of the rotation, so we can individualize your learning program.

If you are also interested in doing scholarly work, please let us know.

For educational resources related to Rheumatology, and Rheumatology training, please consider the following websites:

http://www.rheumatology.org/education/training/Rheum2Learn.asp

https://www.acgme.org/acgmeweb/Portals/0/PDFs/Milestones/InternalMedici…

http://www.rheumatology.org/Education/Training/Training_Directors/

Why Choose Rheumatology?

http://www.rheumatology.org/Education/Chooserheumatology/Choose_Rheumat…

Goals and Objectives

The goal of our program is to develop rheumatologists who are able to deliver and advocate for patient-centered care. Our objectives are designed to fulfill expected outcomes as outlined by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). We have adopted guidelines and methods recommended by these entities to fulfill expectations for entrustable professional activities (EPAs) and milestones.  We have committees that review each fellow’s progress to ascertain whether each trainee has attained the necessary knowledge and skills to proceed to the next level of training to complete the program.

For more information regarding Rheumatology EPAs and milestones, and other information about advancing your knowledge in Rheumatology, please refer to the following links.

The Internal Medicine Subspecialty Milestones Project (PDF)

American College of Rheumatology

Why do we teach?

Read our mission statement >

Faculty

Our division is comprised of full time rheumatology faculty with varied interests. We also have a network of volunteer faculty, research faculty, and faculty in other divisions and departments who play a consistent and vital role in training the next generation of rheumatologists.

Who are our Core Faculty? Learn More >

Conference, Didactics, Workshops

We believe that an individual does not learn through one method alone. In addition, some of us may have unique learning styles.  Our division engages in conferences at least 3 times weekly. Our conferences cover the required conferences (clinical conference, research conference, morbidity and mortality conference, and journal club) and utilizes a variety of formats to cover all required competencies, and to cover most of the required knowledge areas.

  • Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) conference – may cover areas related to morbidity and mortality issues; cases with unique and specific clinical management related questions; preferably follows PICO format.
  • Clinical Conference with Progressive Disclosure and Review of the Literature
  • Case Conference – focusing on history and physical examination findings, followed by discourse on differential diagnosis and management plan
  • Journal Article Conference – mainly focusing on analyzing study methods, use of proper biostatistics; Attendings and residents participate in a joint discussion of peer-reviewed article relevant to the current and future practice of Neurosurgery.
  • Radiology Conferences The faculty and residents discuss interesting cases while reviewing films and clinical data.
  • Interdisciplinary Conferences with Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  • Interdisciplinary conferences Dermatology
  • Basic Immunology Core Curriculum Conference series
  • Clinical Rheumatology Core Curriculum Conference series
  • Musculoskeletal Ultrasound- Anatomy-Radiologic-Physical Examination Correlation Didactics and Workshops
  • Synovial Fluid Analysis Workshops
  • Physical Examination Workshops
  • Exam Review Sessions