Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Program

Message from Program Director

Welcome to the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center

It is my great pleasure to serve as the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Program Director at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, the only quaternary referral children’s hospital in the lower Hudson Valley. Our magnificent children’s hospital is located on a beautiful wooded campus about 25 miles north of New York City. From its founding, our hospital has focused on truly family-centered care. Our mission is three-fold: state-of-the-art care to children and their families coping with the most complex disorders; first rate scholarly activity and research; and teaching.

This is a three year ACGME-accredited program designed to prepare our graduates to develop their career in whatever direction they wish, clinical practice or academic medicine. Many graduates have developed into superb physician-scientists. All attending physicians are on the Faculty of New York Medical College, and many of our fellows have performed scholarly activity that bridges clinical medicine, basic science, and public health. Fellows are encouraged to consider working towards their MPH during the training, as their required scholarly work product can be designed to meet both the requirements for an MPH and board certification in Pediatric Pulmonology.

We have 18 pediatric pulmonologists in our division, and we are referred between 30 and 50 new children each week for pulmonary consultation. Our program has many unique features. Our division includes Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy, Immunology, and Sleep Medicine, which affords our trainees a very broad experience. We believe our fellow’s educational experience is significantly enhanced by our insistence that many patients are admitted and cared for directly by our Pediatric Pulmonology Service, not admitted to the General Hospitalist Service. We have a large Cystic Fibrosis Center, and as part of the CF Foundation Therapeutics Development Network, our center performs dozens of clinical trials and studies. Our fellows care for many children on home mechanical ventilation, including many children with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), with which we have particular expertise. All fellows devote time at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, a premier children’s rehabilitation hospital less than a mile down the road. This relationship affords our fellows experience caring for an extraordinary array of technology-dependent children with complex disorders. We are a member of the Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Network, and care for many children with PCD and other causes of non-CF bronchiectasis. A unique feature is that our division hosts the Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley, one of the few NY State centers of excellence in Environmental Pediatrics.

We are particularly proud of our didactic programs, with an extraordinary four or five division conferences scheduled per week. As a measure of our commitment to teaching, no faculty has scheduled clinical responsibilities during our conferences, which assures a large group adding their views and insights. Performance of scholarly activity is essential to our program, and we encourage fellows to choose projects that are meaningful to them. They can range from basic science projects in our pulmonary research laboratory, to translational and clinical projects, to epidemiology and quality improvement research.

I hope that the information on this website provides you with a helpful overview of our training program, details about our current curriculum and objectives for our fellows, the application process, and an appreciation of the many opportunities for professional and personal growth here at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center and New York Medical College. As you consider your choice of fellowship programs, we hope that your individual goals and priorities will find a good fit here at Westchester. As our fellows will tell you, I am always available to them, so if you have any questions about our program, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

Sankaran Krishnan, MD, MPH
Program Director, Pediatric Pulmonology Training Program
Director, Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Program
Director, Pediatric Pulmonary Function and Exercise Laboratories
Associate Director and Director of Research, Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Clinical Public Health, New York Medical College
[email protected]

Program Overview

The Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine Division of New York Medical College cares for the entire spectrum of respiratory disorders in patients varying from 500-gram neonates to adolescents and beyond. At least 15 of the 33 months of the fellowship will be spent primarily on clinical service. The bulk of the clinical experience will be in the faculty practice of New York Medical College and the inpatient facilities of the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center.

The Pulmonology inpatient service at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is one of the major strengths of the training program. WMC serves as the only tertiary care referral center located within an area of seven counties with a population of over three million. As the only Pediatric Pulmonology Division in the area, essentially all children requiring subspecialty services are referred to the division. The hospital has a stated policy to never turn down patients who need tertiary care. Each trainee will spend at least 15 months “on-service” during the three-year program. The daily inpatient census varies from seven to 17 patients. In addition, we average one to four new consults daily, many of which require daily follow-up. This includes patients in both the Neonatal ICU and Pediatric ICU. Therefore, the pulmonary service follows between eight and 20 patients daily.

Our service actively consults on many patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and most patients with significant respiratory disease are transferred to the pulmonary service when they no longer require intensive care. In addition, trainees may elect to spend up to eight weeks “on-service” In the PICU for a more intensive experience. During this time, Attending Physicians in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine will directly supervise the fellow.

Care of children with chronic respiratory diseases such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia is an important part of clinical pediatric pulmonology. All fellows in our program will spend an average of 6 weeks each year participating in the care of children at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, a superb children’s rehabilitation hospital less than 100 yards from our campus. During this time, our fellows will become quite experienced with the management of technology-dependent children including children on chronic mechanical ventilation, children with tracheostomies and the respiratory care of a vast array of children with genetic, metabolic and neuromuscular disorders. For more information, visit www.blythedale.org.

In addition to an active inpatient service at WMC, each fellow will have scheduled office hours in the Faculty Practice, where he or she will follow their “own” patients with chronic respiratory disorders throughout their fellowship. This continuity of care is an essential part of the training, and is held in the Faculty Practice suite of the Department of Pediatrics.  Learn more. 

The Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine Division has a large outpatient ambulatory program, with approximately 10,000 outpatient visits per year. This translates into, on average, 120 patients per week in our outpatient facilities, of which approximately 20 – 30 are new. Essentially all patients are referred from their primary care physicians, and our Faculty cares for all children regardless of their health insurance status or their ability to pay.

Program Curriculum

How to Apply

Applicants are eligible for the program if they meet the following requirements:

  • Have completed (or will complete by July 1st of expected start year) an ACGME-accredited residency program
  • Have passed all components of the U.S. Medical Licensure Examination, including:
    • Step 1
    • Step 2 (Clinical Knowledge)
    • Step 2 (Clinical Skills)
    • Step 3
  • Have fulfilled the eligibility requirements for certification by the American Board of Pediatrics

International applicants must also provide evidence of the following:

  • Certification by the Educational Commission of Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). Information on ECFMG Certification may be obtained at www.ecfmg.org
  • Successful completion of the ECFMG English Examination

Application Process and Requirements

To apply to our fellowship program, please complete an application through the ERAS, the electronic residency application service offered by AAMC. Apply here: www.aamc.org/services/eras-for-institutions.

We accept one to two new fellows each year. Applications are encouraged to be submitted 18 months prior to the start of training.

Start Applying

Current Fellows

  • Victoria Lee – New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine

  • Rhythm Sharma – Government Medical College Amritsar

  • Tessa Scheckelhoff, D.O. – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine; Pediatrics Residency: Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron
  • Khin Lei Lei Tun, MBBS – University of Medicine, Yangon, Myanmar; Pediatrics Residency: Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center

Our Clinical Locations

Westchester Medical Center

The Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine division has a 18 physician faculty with a very wide range of clinical and research interests. This assures each trainee of the opportunity to be exposed to all facets of our field. Our faculty is currently involved in dozens of research projects, ranging from cell and molecular biology, clinical trials, and epidemiological research. Fellows may choose any of the faculty as mentors in research.

New York Medical College, which has been training physicians since 1860, is one of the largest medical schools in the United States. The main campus moved to Westchester from New York City over 15 years ago, and this move has sparked an extraordinary growth in both the research and patient care roles of the medical school. The Department of Pediatrics has likewise grown at a fantastic rate, with all subspecialists very well represented. There are huge opportunities for each fellow to interact with basic scientists and clinical scientists in all fields of medicine.

The School of Health Sciences and Practice of New York Medical College is a vital resource for our training program. In addition to strong statistical and epidemiological support, the faculty of the Institute for Public Health Health and our division faculty collaborate closely in our newly developed Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley. Trainees are strongly urged to consider obtaining a Master of Public Health (MPH) while they are completing their fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology.

The Maria Fareri Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center is a major teaching hospital of New York Medical College. It serves as the only major referral center for the seven counties in the lower Hudson Valley, and has the highest “case-mix index,” which is a measure of acuity, in the state. Our helicopters bring children in daily from a very expansive geographic region. The focus is on tertiary and critical care. We are always at or above 100% census with transports of critically ill children occurring daily. In 2004, the magnificent Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center opened, and continues to expand in size and scope of programs offered. MFCH is dedicated to family-centered care and is a truly beautiful facility. All patients have private rooms and parents are encouraged to stay 24 hours a day. Learn more about Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital.

Program Alumni

  • Katherine Baldwin, DO – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • Alfina Rijo Poureriet, MD – Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) School of Medicine, Santo Dominigo
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