Neonatal & Perinatal Medicine Fellowship
Introduction
The perinatal service of the University of Wisconsin (UW) Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics is located at Meriter Hospital-Park, a 400-bed private hospital that is closely affiliated with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The service includes research and clinical and teaching programs that focus on fetal growth and development and neonatal adaptation.
The close working relationship between the pediatrics and obstetrics departments and the philosophy of the neonatal-perinatal training program assure a versatile and encompassing fellowship program that allows trainees to fully utilize the resources of both departments.
The objective of this fellowship program is to train physicians for careers in neonatology. Trainees may prepare for a career that ranges from basic research and teaching to clinical perinatal health care delivery. Regardless of each trainee's personal emphasis, all receive guidance and are expected to demonstrate, by the completion of their fellowships, competency in the following:
- Scholarly activity, including basic and/or clinical research
- Management of all degrees of perinatal clinical problems
- Modern methods of maternal-infant health care delivery, including the practice of environmental and family-centered care of the high-risk infant. This will include training in the latest neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) design elements, including private-room care of the high-risk neonate.
Program Overview
Clinical Experience
- Fellows spend twelve months (total) on clinical service. During each year, fellows spend one month with each of four faculty members in the NICU at Meriter Hospital. This twenty-five-bed unit (new in 2007) receives sick newborns from communities within a one-hundred-mile radius of Madison, as well as complicated cases from other level III centers in the state. The unit has an ambulance for infant transport from outlying hospitals; an air-transport system, Med Flight, is also readily available through the UW Hospital.
- Fellows may spend a month's rotation in high-risk maternal/fetal medicine, which includes attending a prenatal diagnostic and counseling clinic.
- Fellows take night call two nights per week and one weekend per month during the first year, and one night per week and one weekend per month during the second and third years.
- Fellows participate one half-day per month in the neonatal follow-up clinic.
Scholarly Activity
- Many opportunities for clinical research are available. Researchers pursue studies in areas such as respiratory physiology, white cell immunology, iron metabolism, infant nutrition, and vascular adaptations in pregnancy. Opportunities exist for other clinical research projects, including psychophysiological neonatal patterns, studies on patients returning to the follow-up clinic, and studies on models and methods of maternal-infant health care delivery. Ongoing projects in epidemiology use an extensive regional and statewide perinatal database to include all phases of perinatal health care, including neonatal follow-up. The department of pediatrics has a strong medical ethics program, and trainees may also consider the area of perinatal medical ethics.
- Fellows will be trained in various aspects of the requirements for conducting clinical and basic science research, including statistical analysis and grant application.
- Fellows will present regularly and at all division conferences and journal clubs.
- In order to complete the American Board of Pediatrics requirements for scholarly achievement, a publication in a peer-reviewed journal as well as presentation of research efforts at national meetings are expected.
Faculty-Neonatology
Georgia Ditzenberger, NNP, RNC, PhD |
Frank R. Greer, MD |
Julie M. Kessel, MD |
Pamela J. Kling, MD |
De-Ann M. Pillers, MD, PhD |
Neena D. Shah, MD |
Faculty- Perinatalogy - High-Risk Obstetrics
Dinesh Shah, MD
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Division Chief, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Sabine Droste, MD
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Katharina Stewart, MD
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Mary Ann Carroll, MD
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Application Process
There is no firm deadline for applications. Only two fellowship positions are available. Preference is given to applicants with at least some US training. J-1 Visas are accepted. H-1 Visas cannot be accepted.
Contacts
Fellowship Director
Frank R. Greer, MD
frgreer [at] pediatrics [dot] wisc [dot] edu
The Center for Perinatal Care
Meriter Hospital
202 South Park Street
Madison, WI 53715
(608) 262-6561; Fax: (608) 267-6337