Medical Toxicology Fellowship

Hello everyone,

I am thrilled you are interested in Medical Toxicology as a career and equally thrilled that you are interested in our fellowship program. We started our medical toxicology fellowship in 2000 and at the end of the 2024 academic year, we will have graduated 50 physicians from the program.  

We have a unique medical toxicology program in Atlanta with many strengths that will not only teach you to be an excellent clinician and researcher, but also provide you with education/opportunities in public health and government. Emory University, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Georgia Poison Center are the entities involved with the fellowship. Emory University and the Georgia Poison Center provide the patient care experience, clinical research experience and didactic teaching while the CDC and ATSDR provide the epidemiological research and public health experience and education.

We have a busy consult service covering 4 hospitals that have a combined ED volume of over 300,000 patients. The Georgia Poison Center is among the busiest poison centers in the US with an annual call volume approaching 90,000. Our fellows help staff an outpatient occupational and environmental toxicology clinic and an opioid use disorder clinic. Thus, the clinical experience has high volume and exposes the learner to a vast array of toxicological pathology.

The experience at CDC/ATSDR is outstanding. You will be performing innovative outbreak investigations and epidemiological research with some of the top investigators in the world. The fellows participate in domestic and international chemical—associated outbreak and public health investigations both in the field as well as on a consultative basis from Atlanta. The mentoring system is great, and you will receive quality supervision every step of the way.  

Another one of our strengths is our financial resources and stewardship. Fellows in our program are fully funded commensurate to their PGY year. This allows fellows the opportunity to moonlight in their primary specialty if they desire to, but we do not require any clinical shifts from our fellows. Furthermore, this strengthens our program by allowing us to train fellows with diverse primary specialties including emergency medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, family medicine and pediatrics to name a few. In addition, we have the financial resources to send our fellows to two medical toxicology conferences each year of training.

We are a friendly cohesive group that plans several social events and activities together including hikes in North Georgia with Dr. Kiernan and her pup Beamer, wine tasting at Vinoteca with Dr. Kazzi, and picking peaches and blueberries at Southern Belle Farms with me. For some, wellness is achieved via living life to the fullest in both work and play. However, as an introvert myself, I understand that others need alone time to recharge their batteries and achieve wellness. Both types of people can thrive in our program.

Lastly, Atlanta is a vibrant, growing and diverse city that I have been proud to call my home since 1996. It has many great neighborhoods, restaurants, and parks.  It has one of the busiest airports in the world and is an hour away from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and four to five hours from the beach. I invite you to explore all that we have to offer. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions as you consider whether this fellowship is where you belong.

Sincerely,
Brent Morgan, MD
Director, Emory/CDC/Georgia Poison Center Medical Toxicology Fellowship
Professor & Vice Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine

Each year, our ACGME-accredited program offers three new fellows the chance to learn from some of the world's foremost toxicology experts. This two-year program offers fellows affiliations with Emory University Medical School, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more.

Fellows also work with world-class Medical Toxicology experts at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), five Atlanta-area hospitals, and the Georgia Poison Center - one of the busiest poison call centers in the country. 

Program applications are accepted through ERAS.

The Emory University Medical Toxicology Fellowship is hosting in-person interviews only for the 2024 interview season. Applications are accepted through ERAS and interviews will be conducted in Atlanta on pre-selected dates in August, September and October 2024. 

A typical interview day will span the hours of 8 a.m. through 5 p.m. and a sample schedule can be provided upon request. Please send any questions to Dr. Melissa Gittinger (mhallid@emory.edu).