USC/LA General Infectious Diseases Fellowship

The Infectious Disease Core Lecture Series is a vital component of the didactic portion of the ID fellowship curriculum and provides a comprehensive overview of all key Infectious Disease topics over a two-year cycle. Annually updated lectures are given primarily by faculty in the Division of Infectious Disease, but also by expert guest lecturers from departments such as Allergy & Immunology, Dermatology, Microbiology, and Pharmacy. ID fellows are also expected to deliver one to two lectures annually.

The weekly Infectious Disease Case Conference features two 30-minute case presentations of patients from the various inpatient consult services or outpatient clinics at Los Angeles General and Keck, with periodic cases presented by the Pediatric Infectious Disease service at Los Angeles General. Faculty and fellows unfamiliar with the case discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to each case, providing an ample opportunity for case-based discussion and teaching. Clinical, pharmacy, and laboratory faculty members provide insight into the case, followed by a five-minute didactic session by the presenting fellow that highlights important or unique aspects of the cases presented. This lively conference is the centerpiece of our didactic set and is usually attended by 20-30 participants including faculty, fellows, residents, students, Rand Schrader Clinic providers, and community Infectious Disease practitioners.

Infectious Disease Grand Rounds are hosted monthly and feature outside guest speakers selected and invited by the USC Infectious Disease faculty members, including visiting faculty of local and national stature in their respective areas of expertise.

Clinicopathology Conference is a monthly, hour-long, multidisciplinary conference that includes faculty from other specialties and departments who discuss diagnostic and management issues for a single, complex or unique case. Most often this involves in-depth review and discussion of histopathology, microbiology slides, imaging, and other diagnostics by expert faculty. In recent years, faculty and experts from divisions as varied as Public Health, Neurology, Hepatology, Pathology, Cardiology, Surgery, and Radiology have all attended this engaging and highly educational conference.

During monthly ID Journal Club, two articles are selected by an ID faculty facilitator. One fellow is assigned as the primary presenter and discussant for each article and presents a critical analysis of the study’s hypothesis, design, methods, results, and appropriateness of the authors’ conclusions leading to group discussion of the applicability of the study results to our daily patient care.

A Combined Pulmonary-Infectious Disease Conference is held throughout the academic year and consists of case presentations of two unknowns, one each by the Los Angeles General ID Division and the USC Pulmonary Division. Faculty, fellows, residents, and students from both divisions attend the conference and participate in the interpretation of relevant chest imaging and discussion of instructive cases. A short review of the relevant literature follows each case presentation.

Intercity Infectious Disease Case Conference is a long-standing, two-hour, monthly meeting among academic ID specialists, trainees and allied health professionals across Southern California. Hosting institutions rotate between the participating medical centers: Los Angeles General, Harbor-UCLA, Kaiser-Harbor City, Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center, UC Irvine/Long Beach VA, and Torrance Memorial. Three to four cases are presented to faculty and trainees as unknowns by the host institution facilitator. At the end of each presentation, fellows from the sponsoring institution give a brief didactic overview of the salient features of the case.

HIV Resistance Conference is a monthly workshop held jointly by the USC Department of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Disease, HIV-trained faculty members and HIV clinicians and trainees from the Department of Family Medicine, and invited HIV experts from across the country. Patients with complex HIV resistance profiles and multiclass drug resistance are presented. Using ART treatment histories along with HIV phenotypes and genotypes, conference attendees work with expert faculty facilitators to arrive at treatment recommendations. This unique, case-based approach to HIV resistance provides a core component of fellows’ training in HIV Medicine.

Dr. Akkad’s research interests include – incidence and outcomes of COVID-19 in liver transplant recipients. He is working to establish guidelines and protocols on pre transplant vaccination and medication prophylaxis as well as post transplantation protocols.

Dr. Atallah’s research interest includes complex infectious disease cases as well as the education of trainees. She has an additional interest in treating patients with prosthetic joint infections and other orthopedic infection-related complications.

Dr. Jones-Lopez’s area of research is the transmission and diagnostics of tuberculosis as well as the study of household TB contact. His research also includes the epidemiology and translational science of TB.

Dr. Nanda’s areas of research is strategies to prevent healthcare associated infections and optimize use of appropriate antimicrobials. In addition, her research also includes epidemiology of novel pathogens like COVID-19 and associated therapeutics

Dr. Khan conducts research on novel diagnostic assays to assess the immune response to viral respiratory infections and vaccination. He has also participated in clinical trials related to COVID-19 therapeutics.

Dr. Baden serves as the Chief of Medicine at Los Angeles General Medical Center. Her academic interests are focused on the treatment of hepatitis C in the outpatient setting, with a method to facilitate equitable access of care for eligible patients to receive such treatment. Additionally, she works closely with infectious disease trainees to teach about hepatitis C evaluation, management, and care with a goal to conduct qualitative research to describe trainee satisfaction with hepatitis C treatment during fellowship, in comparison with national training programs. Additionally, she is involved in antimicrobial stewardship research where she describes how antimicrobial stewardship, with a focus on “shorter is better” courses, is effectively implemented at Los Angeles General Medical Center.

Dr. Clark’s research efforts focus on quality improvement interventions to optimize care of our underserved patient population. He is involved in spearheading a multi-disciplinary endocarditis team to discuss complex cases with multiple specialists to ensure patient’s receive the best possible care, including social and addiction support where appropriate. He has also working to improve resource utilization with diagnostic stewardship of echocardiography in the evaluation of bacteremia to prevent unnecessary tests, while still providing appropriate evaluation depending on level of concern. Additional research efforts are focused on the outcomes of treatment of cryptococcal meningitis with one-time high dose amphotericin and oral flucytosine with high dose fluconazole as compared to standard induction therapy. He is leading a retrospective review to compared clinical outcomes in addition to adverse events observed with intravenous versus oral induction treatment. Clinically, he has a particular interest in non-tuberculous mycobacteria with the many diagnostic and therapeutic challenges – it is an area where patient-centered communication and longitudinal care are especially vital.

Dr. Davar is actively undergoing research within the realm of antibiotic stewardship, particularly examining the outcomes of patient care with a Safer at Home program implemented at the Los Angeles General Medical Center. He is assisting to implement and facilitate a safe transition of care to the outpatient setting for the treatment of infectious diseases with oral antibiotics, with a goal to conduct a retrospective review of the data of early transition of care to the outpatient setting for specific inpatient-managed infectious disease syndromes. Furthermore, Dr. Davar is overseeing a fellow-run research project comparing the rates of endocarditis occurring in correlation with the number of blood cultures positive on hospital admission. Also, he is is leading a retrospective review of the treatment of neurosyphilis and ocular syphilis with oral doxycycline as compared to traditional intravenous penicillin therapy. Lastly, Dr. Davar has an interest in medical education research and findings ways to optimize the delivery of educational materials to trainees and in team dynamics.

Dr. Freling is the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist, Vice-Chair of the Infection Control Committee, and leads the monthly intradepartmental Research Meetings. She has also become the point person for the hospital and Los Angeles Department of Public Health TB Control. She has been leading and involved in a variety of research areas, with a focus on antimicrobial stewardship and use of oral stepdown therapy, quality improvement (QI) projects for diagnostic stewardship, and reducing hospital acquired infections. Dr. Freling has recently completed and published her research in Clinical Infectious Diseases on oral stepdown therapy for infective endocarditis (IE). She has now taken that special interest in IE and is co-leading a QI project with the faculty and fellows on Transthoracic Echo utilization in patients with bacteremia, as well as creating a multi-disciplinary team committee for IE with ID, cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists, addiction medicine, and social workers. She is also working on a project analyzing the likelihood of IE based on blood culture data. In an additional research area, she is participating in a project reviewing oral TMP-SMX use and evaluating the real-world application, including the adverse events many are concerned about – hyperkalemia and acute kidney injury. Moreover, another QI project she is involved in is – reduction of hospital onset C. difficile Infection (CDI). She analyzes CDI rates monthly, the data pre- and post- PDSA cycles, and brainstorms areas of opportunity for future interventions. Lastly, she has actively writing a case-based book aimed to help educate and guide other trainees, providers, hospital staff, etc. on antimicrobial/diagnostic stewardship and she is happily recruiting more contributors. Dr. Freling enjoys working with students, residents, and fellows, of which almost all her projects have active involvement from these learners, and is always open to new research ideas and to helping guide our ID fellows in their areas of research interest.

Dr. Sattah serves as the Associate Director of the Rand Schrader clinic and his research has been involved with the treatment of HIV in the outpatient setting. He has worked in treating acute retroviral syndrome in the emergency department setting, analyzing the benefits of early treatment and comparing inflammatory markers and the effects on the “viral reservoir” seen in early infection. His past research efforts have focused on the sensitivity of interferon-gamma testing in low CD4 T-cell, immunocompromised patients and the outcomes of such results following the treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Sattah additionally leads the quality improvement initiatives in the Rand Schrader clinic, working closely with the rotating infectious disease fellows.

Dr. Spellberg’s NIH-funded research interests are diverse, ranging from basic immunology and vaccinology, to pure clinical and outcomes research, to process improvement work related to delivery of care, focusing on safety net hospitals. Dr. Spellberg’s laboratory focuses on novel immunological and small molecule solutions to prevent and treat antimicrobial resistant infections. His lab has numerous high impact publications, that are funded across multiple lines of investigation. Ongoing projects include a first-in-class vaccine that works via Innate, Trained Immunity, rather than traditional, lymphocyte mediated adaptive immunity, and has been shown to mediate protection preclinically against Gram positive pathogens (MRSA, VRE), Gram negative pathogens (CRE, ESBL, CRAB), and fungi; a monoclonal antibody therapeutic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii; and novel small molecule approaches to combatting Gram negative bacterial infections.

Dr. Wald-Dickler is Chief of the Infectious Disease Division, Hospital Epidemiologist and Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control, as well as Chair of the Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee at Los Angeles General Medical Center. He also chairs the P&T Antimicrobial Subcommittee and is Director of LA General’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He is also the former Medical Director of the Los Angeles General Rand Schrader HIV Clinic. As such, his research and academic interests in Infectious Disease are varied. While at Rand Schrader, he was lead investigator of a CSF analysis sub-study of a trial investigating tesamorelin in the treatment of HIV-associated neurocognitive dysfunction as well as site lead for the MINMON Trial, an ACTG trial of a minimal monitoring strategy for the treatment of hepatitis C. He was co-investigator of a number of inpatient therapeutic clinical trials during the Covid-19 pandemic including mesenchymal stems cells and lenzilumab. His current research efforts now focus on practical applications of diagnostic stewardship in hospital acquired infections (including publications on diagnostic stewardship in CAUTIs and C. difficile colitis) as well as various topics in antimicrobial stewardship and hospital-based Infection Control.

Javier Barranco-Trabi, MD
Residency: Tripler Army Medical Center

Esteban Martinez, MD
Residency: Kaiser Permanente San Francisco

Kevin Yu, MD
Residency: University of Southern California/Los Angeles General

John Hershberger, MD
Residency: Baylor College of Medicine

Paloma Khamly, DO
Residency: Loma Linda University Medical Center

Julie Lin, MD
Residency: Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara

Nahel Kapadia, MD – Clinical Practice, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, CA

Jessica So, MD, MPH – Clinical Practice, Los Angeles, CA

Tri Tran, MD – Clinical Practice, Kaiser Permanente, Panorama City, CA

Apurva Akkad, MD – Academic Practice, USC Keck Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Sarah Freling, MD – Academic Practice, Los Angeles General Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Aung Steven Lin, DO – Clinical Practice, Sutter Health, Mountain View, CA

Joshua Chen, DO – Clinical Practice, Hoag Hospital, Newport Beach, CA

Kevin Ganesh, MD – Clinical Practice, Victor Valley Global Medical Center, Victorville, CA

Christina Vu, DO – Clinical Practice, Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs, CA

Aditya Jones, MD – Clinical Practice, LA County Department of TB Control, Los Angeles, CA

Brianna Rogan, MD – Clinical Practice, Diablo Infectious Diseases, Castro Valley, CA

Hui Quan “Katie” Zhang, MD – Clinical Practice, Providence Health & Services, Spokane, WA

Navid Pour-Ghasemi, MD – Clinical Practice, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Fernando Dominguez, MD – Clinical Practice, Hillcrest Family Health Center, San Diego, CA

Patrick Wu, MD – Academic Practice, Loma Linda & Riverside University Health, Loma Linda, CA

Erin Dizon, MD – Clinical Practice, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Los Angeles, CA

Eriko Masuda, MD – Clinical Practice, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Los Angeles, CA

Harold Glenn San Agustin, MD – Clinical Practice, JWCH Institute Center of Community Health, Los Angeles, CA

Jonathan Chou, MD – Clinical Practice, Kaiser Permanente, Fontana, CA

Deepa Nanayakkara, MD – Academic Practice, City of Hope, Los Angeles, CA

Noah Wald-Dickler, MD – Academic Practice, Los Angeles General Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Melissa Barger, MD – Clinical Practice, Oceanview Medical Specialists, Ventura, CA

Rohit Kalia, MD – Clinical Practice, Atrium Health, Lincolnton, NC

Elham Rahmati, MD – Academic Practice, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA

Supriya Bhat, MD – Academic Practice, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA

Daniel Chelliah, MD – Clinical Practice, Sutter Health, Mountain View, CA

Mariasol Pena, MD – Clinical Practice, Kaiser Permanente, Downey, CA

Gilmer Youn, MD – Clinical Practice, AltaMed, Pasadena, CA

The salary for fellows a standardized salary, based on post-graduate year (PGY) training level across Los Angeles General Medical Center, as designated by graduate medical education (GME). Salary is subject to change annually.

Salary by post-graduate year (October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025)

PGY-4: $7,010.29 (Monthly); $84,123.48 (Annually)
PGY-5: $7,501.58 (Monthly); $90,019.06 (Annually)

More information available at Los Angeles General Graduate Medical Education.

Fellows are awarded 4 weeks of vacation, separated into 1-2-week vacation blocks, which they can request at the beginning of each academic year. Fellows are also given Los Angeles General Medical Center observed holidays each year, when not on clinical service.

Los Angeles is a large metropolitan city, often referred to as the “Greater Los Angeles” area. Each neighborhood located throughout Los Angeles offers fun experiences and delicious dining options. The majority of fellows choose to have a car to allow them to enjoy the city to its fullest.While the public transit system in LA is very functional and continues to expand, getting around Los Angeles is easiest, and sometimes most reliable, if you have your own car.

All fellows are provided with complimentary parking at both Los Angeles General Medical Center and Keck Medical Center of USC. Fellows use their ID badge to enter the secure parking lots.

Yes! Fellows are provided with meal funds using their ID badge. Fellows are provided with approximately $30/day for meals at both medical campus hospital cafeterias (Los Angeles Medical Center and Keck Medical Center).

Fellows will be expected to cover nights on the consult services where they will answer incoming pages and consult questions after hours. Typically, non-urgent consult questions can be assessed in-person the following day during daytime hours with an important goal of triaging care after hours. At Los Angeles General Medical Center, a rotating fellow will cover weekday nights for the clinical services, often separate from the daytime consult fellows. On weekends, a rotating fellow will cover all services the entire weekend at Los Angeles General. There is no night or weekend fellow coverage at Keck USC Hospital.

Absolutely! At the beginning of the fellowship, every incoming fellow will be assigned to a faculty mentor who will help gauge the fellow’s academic interests and connect them with other faculty members to ensure that the fellow is engaged in conducting a research project throughout training. Fellows also have the option of joining individualized Training Tracks: Transplant Infectious Diseases, HIV Care, Hospital Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Medical Education.