When Tommy King, MD, a second-year infectious diseases fellow in the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Medicine, pictures his ideal future career, the dream is multifaceted — providing excellent clinical care to patients with HIV or bone infections, conducting influential research, and teaching and inspiring future generations of doctors. Although his aspirations are set high, it is because of his training at CU Anschutz that he feels better equipped to achieve them.
“We go into this field to help patients, whether it’s through being a researcher, an excellent clinician, or a great educator. I hope to one day be an example of all three of those things, and I feel this place has given me the tools to do that,” he says. “The training I am getting is of the utmost quality.”
Growing up in Winnetka, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, King discovered a love of using science to help people at a young age. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Illinois, where he pursued a molecular biology degree, ran track and cross country at a varsity level, and decided he wanted to become a physician.
Following his college graduation in 2015, King worked as a private tutor before starting a job at the Erie Family Health Center in Chicago, where he found a passion for the field of infectious diseases.
“It was a federally qualified health center, and I worked on the data for the HIV patient program. I learned a lot about patients with HIV and heard their stories, and that is what initially drew me to infectious diseases,” he says. “I thought it was a field where I could really make a difference.”
In 2017, he started medical school at Rush University in Chicago, where he subsequently completed his residency training. Throughout his time there, he found mentors who solidified his interest in the field.
“It’s what got me the most excited, and that’s what you want to find when you’re training — something that makes you get out of bed and puts pep in your step,” he says. “What is really unique about infectious diseases is that we see patients all over the hospital. We don’t focus on one specific organ system. We look at how an infection ties together across different organ systems, and I think that’s really fulfilling.”
As King approached the end of his residency training and began looking at fellowship programs, the two-year CU Anschutz Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program stood out to him because of its versatile opportunities that empower fellows to pursue their interests.
“I was really impressed at how the program prioritizes fellow wellness, because it gives fellows time to pursue scholarly interests while also building their clinical skills with diverse patient populations,” he says. “There are a lot of unique things done here that are not done anywhere else.”
One of the unique features CU Anschutz offers is the ability to do clinical rotations in multiple health care institutions including the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver Health, and National Jewish Health.
“Doctors come from all over the world to do a rotation at National Jewish Health, and we get to rotate there as part of this program. It’s amazing,” he says.
As a fellow, King not only trains at different institutions. He also rotates across several different clinical services, gaining experience dealing with general infectious diseases cases as well as infections that affect orthopedic patients, transplant patients, and oncology patients.
“We get to see how different attendings approach different conditions, and we get to care for different patient populations. It makes the day really varied and enjoyable,” he says. “We also work in clinics at Denver Health like the sexually transmitted diseases clinic and tuberculosis clinic, which are world models for ideal public health care. Getting to learn from those experts and see how they do things is amazing.”
Although King was initially interested in treating people with HIV, his fellowship training led to him finding a passion for another emerging field: orthopedic infectious diseases — a subspecialty that focuses on infections affecting a person’s bones and joints.
Research has shown there is expected to be a significant increase in bone and joint infections, such as diabetic foot osteomyelitis (infection of the bone), fracture-related infection, prosthetic joint infection, and chronic osteomyelitis.
“These conditions affect a lot of people, and when they occur, it can be a major hit to a person’s quality of life,” he says. “I aim to help move the field forward, because with how large the aging population is, this is a growing field.”
One of the aspects of orthopedic infectious diseases that King enjoys most is getting to collaborate with the surgical team to help patients, saying it is like a puzzle where physicians must team up to determine how to best treat conditions, whether it be through surgery, antibiotics, or other interventions.
Given his interest in the field, King decided to conduct research on a unique surgery called osseointegration, a procedure for amputees where a metal rod is placed into a person’s bone where the amputation is. This allows the patient to clip into a prosthesis and walk with a normal gait, King explains.
“It’s a surgery that is done at only a few centers in the country, and so there is not a lot known about when these patients get infections,” he says. “I’m looking at patients who do get infections, what they are treated with, whether they get surgery again, and other data points to see what we can learn so we can help patients in the future.”
Beyond his clinical and research experience, King’s time in the fellowship program has confirmed his interest in becoming a future educator. As a fellow, he helped create a program where musculoskeletal radiologist Alex Merkle, MD, shows infectious diseases physicians how to perform arthrocentesis, a procedure where fluid is removed from a person’s joint.
“Infectious diseases doctors don’t generally do procedures, and although we do not perform these procedures as part of the program, we get to see how it is done,” he says. “It helps show the anatomy and spark an interest in procedures.”
King also collaborated with infectious diseases faculty members Katherine Frasca, MD, and Steven Mudroch, MD, to create an antibiotic review course for CU Anschutz School of Medicine students to take before taking the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 exam.
“That was an idea I came up with to help students. It’s a board review for antibiotics with clinical cases to give students more practice before taking that exam,” he says. “I love teaching, and as a fellow, I’ve also gotten to teach some of the medical residents here. That’s been an amazing experience, because I want to be someone who passes my knowledge and enthusiasm on to others.”
After King finishes his fellowship next year, he hopes to stay in the Denver area and work in an academic medical center, such as at CU Anschutz or Denver Health. Though he is approaching the end of his fellowship, he describes himself as a lifelong learner, always looking for ways he can continue to evolve as a clinician, researcher, educator, and person.
“It’s amazing to think of how much I’ve grown in the last year, and I’ve really found happiness and community,” he says. “Clinically, the training we get here is fantastic, and the mentoring is second to none. We have amazing educators who push us to make changes in our practice that will benefit us and our patients in the future.”
When talking about the support at CU Anschutz, he says, “They also care about us, not just as fellows and doctors, but as people. My life has changed for the better by being here and for having this experience.”