Status of Medical Mycology Education in America

Mycology is the study of fungus, whereas “Clinical Mycology” is understanding and utilizing antifungal strategies in a clinical setting when fungal diagnoses are made.  Unfortunately, fungal diagnoses are rare because fungal training is rare. Says this article (1) , “The number of immunocompromised patients and subsequent invasive fungal infections continues to rise. However, the education of future medical mycologists to engage this growing problem is diminishing.” Twenty-one years ago, when this paper was published, we realized that a problem existed, yet little has been done to fix the problem. Millions of American medical charts have the words “cause unknown” written in them and in my opinion, this is because of the lack of Clinical Mycology training in medical schools.  As this article concluded, “Very few medical schools have full-time medical mycologists, and most teaching is done by microbiologists, biochemists, or immunologists with an interest in pathogenic fungi. It is clear, that at the present rates, the incidence of fungal disease will far outpace the increase in new clinicians, educators, and researchers dedicated to medical mycology.” This scenario seems to be working well for everyone except we, the patients.