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Critical Care Medicine
Fellowship
General Information
The Training Program in Detail
Research Facilities
Faculty Information
Fellowship Application
General Information
The Children's Hospital (TCH) in Aurora, Colorado is a free-standing children's hospital affiliated with the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at TCH admits approximately 1,300 patients per year from the Denver metro area and surrounding Rocky Mountain Region. In addition, there is a separate Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) providing care to cardiology and cardiac surgery patients (500 cardiac surgeries per year). Fellows rotate through both units.
The Section of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics at TCH offer a fully accredited pediatric critical care fellowship designed for board-eligible pediatricians planning a career devoted to the care of the critically ill child.
The fellowship program offers broad-based training in both the practice of pediatric critical care medicine and the conduct of biomedical research related to pediatric critical care. Emphasis is placed on the stabilization and management of the critically ill child with acute single or multisystem organ failure due to cardiac, pulmonary, infectious, neurologic or traumatic illness. The PICU serves active programs in pediatric cardiac surgery, general surgery, trauma surgery, and bone marrow and solid organ transplantation. Critical care fellows participate actively in the multidisciplinary teams responsible for the care of those patients, including the medical PICU team and a dedicated cardiac ICU team.
Numerous research opportunities are available and fellow research is supervised by one or more of our faculty members. NIH-funded research programs are available in pulmonary vascular disease, oxygen radical induced organ injury, mechanisms of airway reactivity, interstitial lung disease and perinatal metabolism.
The critical care faculty consists of five physicians, all board certified or board eligible in pediatric critical care medicine with two dual-boarded in pediatric pulmonology, as well as three full-time PhD investigators. In addition, several members of the Departments of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Cardiology and Anesthesiology provide key roles in the education and training of the fellows.
The Training Program in Detail
The First Year
The first year is designed to provide the fellow trainee with the necessary experience to become an excellent clinician and teacher in the field of critical care medicine. The year is fully structured and almost entirely clinical. Responsibilities include:
- Eight months of clinical service in the PICU, on both the medical ICU (6 months) and cardiac ICU (2 months) services. Fellows are primarily responsible for all medical patients in the PICU, and they comanage all surgical patients.
- Two months of pediatric anesthesiology
in the first half of the year; this is designed to teach airway management, intubation skills, and vascular access skills.
- One month on the pediatric pulmonary medicine service at TCH. Fellows gain bronchoscopy experience during this month, as well as a broader view of pediatric pulmonary disease.
- One month of research time, to be used to begin to develop a project for the remainder of the fellowship program.
- Night call is taken in-house, and averages every 4th night when on-service and every 7th night when off-service.
Fellows participate in The Children's Hospital Emergency Transport Service and manage, with supervision from the ICU attending, transports and admissions to the PICU.
Fellows participate in the weekly Critical Care educational conferences and journal clubs. All other pediatric, anesthesia, pulmonary, and other specialty conferences are open to fellows.
In addition, the fellows review assigned charts for complications and/or deaths, present the cases for an ICU Morbidity and Mortality Review Team, and participate in the monthly M&M Conference.
The Second and Third Years
The second and third years of the training program are primarily devoted to a research experience with the assistance of a specific mentor. Research work can be performed at TCH, the Pediatric Critical Care/ Developmental Lung Biology Laboratory at UCD, the Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Research Laboratory (UCD), or the National Jewish Health (NJH). Research mentors are experienced principal investigators with
ongoing studies in either clinical or basic science research.
Experience is also available in physiology, cell and molecular
biology, biochemistry, immunology and pharmacology.
Although most applicants complete their
fellowship training in three years, an optional fourth year of
training is available to those interested in seriously pursuing
a career as a physician-scientist or those who desire dual board
certification, such as in both Critical Care and Pulmonary Medicine.
Research Facilities
Developmental Lung Biology Laboratory
Director: Kurt R. Stenmark, MD
The Developmental Lung Biology Laboratory is located at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). Presently, the group consists of three physicians and three full-time PhD researchers, as well as doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows, including pediatric critical care fellows. Current areas of investigation include both normal and pathologic mechanisms involved in lung cell growth and development, factors controlling vascular tone and structure in the pulmonary circulation, and responses of the vasculature to injury.
Cardiovascular Pulmonary Laboratory (CVP)
Director: Ivan McMurtry, PhD
Located at the UCD, the Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research Laboratory offers research opportunities in cardiovascular-pulmonary physiology and cell biology. Topics of research include the pulmonary circulation, acute lung injury, endothelial cell damage, as well as high altitude physiology. Drs. John Weil, Ivan McMurtry, Karen Fagan, Sonia Flores, Lorna Moore and Jack Dempsey offer offer an outstanding research experience for fellows in a collaborative relationship with the UCD Department of Medicine.
National Jewish Health (NJH)
Erwin Gelfand, MD
On a separate campus near TCH and UCD, NJH has major investigative programs in basic immunology as well as physiological disturbances in pulmonary disease, with emphasis on airway smooth muscle function, exercise-induced bronchospasm, respiratory muscle strength and lung mechanics.
Faculty Information
For more information about our faculty, please visit our faculty, research, research funding, publications and awards and honors web pages.
Fellowship Application
Beginning with the 2009 application for fellowship positions starting July 2010, pediatric critical care fellowship programs will be using the ERAS system. Additional information on the application process will be available in Spring 2009, but applicants can contact the program director Eva Grayck [Eva.Grayck@ucdenver.edu] directly for questions about our program or an update on the status of the ERAS application.
The completed ERAS applications are screened and selected applicants are invited to travel to Denver to meet with faculty and fellows and tour the facilities. Final fellow selection is accomplished by participation in the National Residency Matching Program Match for critical care fellows, which occurs in the fall each year. Applicants must be eligible for a Colorado medical license. International medical graduates must have a valid ECFMG.
International Medical Graduates
In order for International Medical Graduates to be eligible to enter our program, you must meet the following criteria:
- Have a valid ECFMG Certificate
- Be able to legally work in the United States:
Residents in our program must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or possess the appropriate documentation to allow Resident to legally train at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
- Minimum selection criteria of the University of Colorado Denver. Visit the Graduate Medical Education website to view the criteria.
- Any other criteria as determined by the program.
Thanks again for your interest in our program and best wishes in your future endeavors.
Contact:
Eva Nozik Grayck, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship
Critical Care Medicine
13121 East 17th Avenue
P.O. Box 6508
Aurora, Colorado 80045
Tel: (303) 724-2393
Eva.Grayck@ucdenver.edu
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