As the only academic tertiary care center in Iowa, UIHC is the destination for a diverse population of patients and diseases. Fellows manage patients from all over the Midwest with varying backgrounds. Fellows have exposure to a wide range of diseases, from “bread and butter” to the rarest “fascinomas” on a regular basis (see examples).

By extension, the fellow also develops skills to diagnose or manage other non-inflammatory diagnoses that may mimic immunological or infectious diseases such as CNS tumors and neoplasms (leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, melanomatosis, gliomatosis, primary CNS lymphoma, infiltrative gliomas), metabolic and toxic neurological syndromes (PRES, Wernicke's encephalopathy, central pontine myelinolysis, subacute combined degeneration from B12 and copper deficiency) and inherited leukodystrophies diagnosed in adults (CADASIL, retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukoencephalopathy, mitochondrial complex I deficiency, etc.).