Now accepting applicants for our one-year training in IP

Our Interventional Pulmonology fellow engages with a wide range of disease pathology including lung transplant complications, interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in thoracic oncology, and benign and malignant airway disease. We manage our patients with thoracic surgery, oncology, interventional radiology, radiation oncology, and ENT. The program is located at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) in Minneapolis, a tertiary referral center for Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Founded in 2017, the program trains one IP fellow annually.  

Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration:

  • Applicants must have completed or be in an ACGME-accredited fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. 
  • International medical graduates requiring visa sponsorship must apply for a J-1 physician visa and meet the eligibility criteria established by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) for J-1 sponsorship and eligibility criteria in the GME Eligibility, Selection & Transfer Policy. H-1B visas and other employment-based visa categories are not sponsored by this program.
Application

We accept applications July 1 - July 31 through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). We offer one position per year, and participate in the National Resident Matching Program.

Please include the following with your application:

  • An up-to-date curriculum vitae
  • A recent headshot
  • Three letters of recommendation from physicians with whom you have worked closely
  • A personal statement
  • A procedure log summarizing type and number of procedures performed.
  • Copies of USMLE/COMLEX reports

We invite top applicants (via an August email) to a virtual interview with the program director and selected faculty, September - October. 

Curriculum

Fellows spend 12 months training in these areas:

  • Inpatient interventional pulmonology consult service
  • Diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopies and pleural procedures in the operating room
  • Diagnostic bronchoscopy and pleural procedures performed in the endoscopy unit
  • Bedside procedures performed in the intensive care unit
  • 2 - 4-week rotation on the thoracic surgery service
  • One half day a week on average in outpatient interventional pulmonary clinic
Procedural training

Fellows train in these procedures:

Diagnostic bronchoscopy

  • Endobronchial ultrasound: Linear and radial probes
  • Robotic bronchoscopy
  • Cryobiopsy
  • Fiducial marker placement
  • Cone Beam CT
  • Bronchography
  • Transesophageal biopsy

Therapeutic bronchoscopy

  • Rigid bronchoscopy
  • Stent placement (custom silicone, straight silicone, hybrid, Y stents, bifurcating, amniotic membrane covered)
  • Balloon dilation of airways
  • Laser therapy
  • Electrocautery
  • Cryotherapy
  • Argon plasma coagulation
  • Endobronchial valves
  • Whole lung lavage
  • Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (and endobronchial valve insertion)
  • Galvanize pulsed electrical field ablation
  • Microdebrider

Pleural procedures

  • Ultrasound guided thoracentesis
  • Non-tunneled chest tube placement
  • Tunneled chest tube placement
  • Chemical pleurodesis
  • Medical pleuroscopy
  • Blood patch 
  • Percutaneous pleural biopsy

Others

  • Percutaneous tracheostomy
  • Percutaneous lymph node biopsy
Conferences

We encourage fellows to attend these conferences:

  • Weekly Lung Nodule Conference
  • Weekly Thoracic Tumor Board Conference
  • Every other week Complex Airway Disease Conference
  • Weekly Lung Transplant Conference

ACGME accreditation

We are fully accredited by the ACGME.

Statement on union representation of trainees

On March 24, 2025, the State of Minnesota, Bureau of Mediation Services, received a petition filed by the Committee of Interns and Residents, Long Island City, New York. With majority support confirmed through valid authorization cards, the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) certified the union as the exclusive representative of UMN GME residents/fellows on May 9, 2025.