Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship Program

Thank you for your interest in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship program at Westchester Medical Center. We aspire to world-class training and mentoring of the next generation of clinicians, educators and researchers in the field of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. The program is based in Valhalla, NY, which is one of the bucolic northern suburbs of New York City located in Westchester County extending along the eastern bank of the Hudson River.

The fellowship is a three-year program fully accredited by the ACGME.  Four fellows are accepted each year for a total of 12 Pulmonary/Critical Care fellows.  Two Nephrology/Critical Care fellows join the program for the third year of that fellowship track to make a total of 14 trainees per year.  Westchester Medical Center, the main training site for the program, is a 415-bed tertiary/quaternary referral center and flagship hospital for the 1,700-bed WMCHealth system spanning the Hudson Valley. It is also the primary teaching hospital for New York Medical College. Westchester Medical Center is known for having one of the highest case mix indices in the United States, meaning that its patients are among the most clinically complex of any hospital in the country. At this site, Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine fellows learn to care for a population encompassing all medical and surgical subspecialties, including transplantation of the kidney, liver, heart, and bone marrow. Westchester Medical Center is the future home of a new Critical Care Tower, a $220 million project that will span 162,000 square feet and rise five stories.  Learn more.

Additionally, fellows gain non-medical critical care experience through core rotations in a Neurosciences ICU and elective rotations in other intensive care units. Both primary and consultative management of patients receiving ECMO is commonplace. Westchester Medical Center provides interventional pulmonology services for a large catchment area, and the fellows rotate with the hospital’s interventional pulmonology section. In collaboration with the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, Westchester Medical Center is home to a large cystic fibrosis program, which affords fellows the opportunity to learn about the management of this unique and challenging population. The weekly chest clinic staffed by the fellows offers them an opportunity to exercise supervised autonomy in the care of a diverse, underserved patient population with complex needs, among them a heavy burden of sleep-disordered breathing. A large simulation center used for fellow training is located on the grounds of New York Medical College.

For a contrasting community-based experience, the fellows rotate at two affiliate sites located in New York City. Saint Barnabas Hospital is a busy inner-city facility known for its advanced asthma care and multifaceted critical care service. Metropolitan Hospital Center provides exposure to the outpatient care of the prototypical community patient with pulmonary disease. We believe that this combination of complementary training sites offers the broadest possible clinical scope, preparing fellows for practice in any environment upon graduation.

As part of a program based at an academic medical center and closely allied with New York Medical College, the fellows are granted six months of research time spread between second and third year to pursue scholarly projects with the encouragement and mentorship of the faculty. They also interact with New York Medical College medical students in multiple settings. There is an extensive list of conferences designed with trainees in mind, including chest CT and Ultrasound conferences, Pathology conference, Thoracic tumor board, clinical case conference, M&M, and CF conference among others. There is a divisional Grand Rounds series as well as a “boot camp”-style preparatory crash course for first-year fellows in the summer months. Running weekly is a core curriculum lecture series composed of both faculty and fellow presentations.

The Westchester Medical Center Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship program participates in ERAS and invites applications from candidates interested in its mission of providing premier clinical training in an environment conducive to scholarly output. As a reflection of the multicultural patient population we serve in the environs of New York City, we pride ourselves on attracting a similarly diverse and inclusive group of fellows.

Sincerely,

Oleg Epelbaum, MD 
Program Director