Division Overview

The Division of Infectious Diseases has recently grown to 21 full time faculty, with several distinct areas of activity.  In 1981, the fellowship program at Mt. Sinai Hospital merged with the University of Miami program, and several faculty were added over the next decade. As a result, one faculty member assumed responsibility for assisting the solid organ transplant program, the clinical immunology faculty administratively were moved into the Division and the Miami-Dade STD program became the responsibility of the Division and a hospital epidemiologist was added to the faculty. The Division presently encompasses nearly all of the activities associated with the specialty of infectious diseases.      

The inpatient consult services at the three teaching hospitals, Jackson Memorial Medical Center, the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center, represent the centerpiece of the clinical training program with more than 2500 consults annually.  Additionally, private outpatient consultations are available at the University of Miami Hospital and Clinics and at Mt. Sinai Medical Center.  A unique travelers clinic is available at Mt. Sinai Medical Center.      

The Division provides primary care to an estimated 3500 persons with HIV in the clinics at Jackson Memorial Medical Center and also staff an active HIV-dedicated inpatient service at Jackson Memorial Hospital where there are approximately 1500 discharges per year.  At the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Dr. Dickinson is joined by Dr. Nancy Klimas and Dr. Patricia Major in staffing the Special Immunology Clinical Research Unit, one of four nationwide Veterans Adminstration-funded centers.  This unit provides care to approximately 750 veterans with HIV infection.       

The sexually transmitted diseases clinics of Miami-Dade County are staffed by Division members under the direction of faculty member Dr. Jose G. Castro.  More than 26,000 encounters are logged each year.  This is a relatively new activity for the Division and  is expanding steadily.      

The research arm of the Division's activities is dynamic and reaches out to cover a broad spectrum of first-class biomedical science. Although patient care and teaching are the core elements within the Division, research is equally important and rapidly growing.