Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program

The first year is more heavily weighted toward clinical experience in the NICU. There are three clinical teams that provide ample learning opportunities. The RED TEAM includes residents and a fellow, and is supervised by a senior attending physician. The GREEN TEAM is led by a senior attending physician and is assisted by a neonatal fellow and nurse practitioners. The GOLD TEAM focuses on convalescent care and transition to home and is primarily fellow-driven, with an attending physician available for rounding and consultation.

We provide a thorough two-month orientation lecture series at the onset of the first year to properly acquaint incoming fellows with the practical tools and specialty knowledge they will need to feel comfortable and confident as they begin the next phase of their career as a NICU Fellow. Fellows spend six months on service in the NICU as part of a team caring for 20 to 25 patients on these respective teams. Fellows also rotate through the Level I service at Blythedale Children’s Hospital to provide a contrast in community hospital neonatal medicine along with our attending staff. Fellows provide a month of cross coverage for post-call fellows, during which they also gain exposure to the outpatient High-Risk Infant Developmental Clinic. The remainder of the year is devoted to research.

The fellowship’s second year increases the time spent in research to six months, with three NICU service months, one month at Blythedale Children’s Hospital and another in cross coverage. Fellows participate in all aspects of the NICU’s program to improve quality in healthcare delivery.

The third year builds upon skills and experience learned in the first two years of fellowship and includes two months of clinical service, seven months of research, a month at Blythedale Children’s Hospital and a final month of cross coverage.

Institutions: MFCH = Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital/Westchester Medical Center     SJH = St. John’s Riverside Hospital Blythedale Children’s Hospital
Fellowship Training Summary: clinical months = 18; research months = 15; vacation months = 3
Red Team = Teaching Team
Green Team = NNP Team
Gold Team = Convalescing patients w/ complex medical care needs
*All rotations have in-house (IH) on-call responsibilities at MFCH.

As a university-based academic medical center, the division’s senior physicians have many basic science and clinical research interests. Basic science research focuses on single nucleotide polymorphisms, stem cell biology, hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure, the pathogenesis of intraventricular hemorrhage, nutrition and population health. Fellows have also collaborated with post-doctoral students, medical students, master’s students and technicians in the laboratory.

Clinical research programs include participation in several national multicenter trials, and studies related to data obtained at the Regional Perinatal Center Database. Highly motivated fellows may design a specific research project based on their interests in conjunction with an appropriate faculty mentor.

Research Responsibilities

The fellowship strictly adheres to the ACGME guidelines for participation in fellowship scholarly activity. Within six months of beginning fellowship, fellows are expected to identify a mentor for scholarly activity and a potential research subject area and to design a project over the next six months. Fellows are responsible to their personal Scholarly Oversight Committee (SOC) to report on research progress, at least every six months throughout the three-year fellowship period. Fellows are encouraged to submit their work for peer-reviewed national meetings, and a draft of a scholarly manuscript is mandated by the end of fellowship. Past Fellows have received Travel Awards to attend the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research and the Pediatric Academic Societies National Meetings. The division and medical center support fellowship trainees to present their first-author work at a national meeting.

Academics

Throughout their three years, fellows participate in different conferences aimed at increasing their ability to manage neonatal cases, effectively read and interpret the medical literature, improve their skills at understanding controversial topics in neonatal care, and navigate ethical issues in neonatology. At these conferences fellows present a talk mentored by an attending physician. Weekly physiology-based case conferences cover topics in respiratory and cardiac physiology as well as genetics, endocrinology, infectious disease, and many other topics. These lectures serve to increase the trainees’ fund of knowledge and also provide assistance for passing the board examination. Fellows also attend conferences that improve their knowledge of statistics, and obtain practical exposure to the administrative aspects of neonatal care in monthly joint practice and quality assurance conferences. A joint perinatal medicine conference with Obstetrics occurs weekly.

Academic Schedule for Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellows