Adult & Pediatric Regional Anesthesiology Fellowship

The Adult and Pediatric Regional Anesthesiology Fellowship is a collaboration between two of the main teaching centers at McGaw Medical Center: Northwestern Memorial Hospital, directed by Antoun Nader, MD, and Children's Memorial Hospital, directed by Santhanam Suresh, MD, FAAP. The fellowship will emphasize the perioperative management of patients receiving neuraxial or peripheral neural blockade for anesthesia or analgesia. Fellows will become experts in the practice and theory of regional anesthesiology.

Clinical Training

Fellows will complete a formal 6 month rotation in adult regional anesthesia and acute pain management at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This rotation includes multimodal analgesic techniques such as neuraxial and peripheral nerve catheters, local anesthetics and narcotic infusions, and non-narcotic analgesic adjuvants with emphasis on indications, contraindications, side effects, potential complications, and daily management of patients on the acute pain service.

Fellows will complete a formal 6 month rotation in pediatric acute pain management and regional anesthesia at Children's Memorial Hospital.  This will include the use of multimodal analgesic management including the use of neuraxial techniques, peripheral nerve catheters as well as opioid infusions and non-opioid adjuvants with emphasis on indications, adverse effects, potential complications and everyday management of infusions.  In addition, the fellow will be involved in the regional anesthesia service that will provide regional anesthesia techniques in infants, children and adolescents including head and neck bocks, upper and lower extremity blocks and truncal blocks, and thoracic and lumbar epidural catheters.  Lastly, the fellow will be provided an opportunity to supervise anesthesia  residents in anesthesia in the use of ultrasonography for peripheral and central neuraxial blocks.

Research/Scholarly Activity

Fellows will have the opportunity to participate in clinical and/or laboratory research and will be given appropriate non-clinical time (one day a week) to fulfill these goals. There will be opportunities for the fellow to become involved in research already in progress or to develop an original project. The fellow will have the opportunity to participate in current extramural funded (NIH) projects as well as other multidisciplinary and or multi-institutional funded studies.  In either case, an appropriate attending anesthesiologist will be appointed to mentor and assist the fellow to facilitate these goals. The program director at each one of the sites (NMH, CMH) will provide the mentorship for the fellow during his/her fellowship year.  The types of activities that would suffice as academic projects include a:

1. research paper and/or case report submitted to a peer-review journal and presented;
2. clinical chart review or a review article submitted to, and accepted by a peer-reviewed journal;
3. book chapter or other endeavors;
4. grant submission for extramural funding.

The fellow will have the opportunity to participate in regional anesthesia workshops at national meetings including the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA), American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) and the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).  The fellow will attend two national meetings (ASRA, IARS, ASA, or SPA).

Didactics

1. A lecture series or Grand Rounds, which covers topics relevant to, but not limited to, regional anesthesia will be held at least 12 times per year.
2. A “Journal Club” (current literature review) will be held at least once monthly.
3. Fellow should present articles at least twice in twelve months under the supervision of an attending anesthesiologist.
4. A case conference specifically designed for fellows and supervised, or given, by a qualified faculty member shall occur at least once per month.
5. Fellow shall be expected to deliver a Grand Rounds lecture including a relevant literature review at least once during the course of the fellowship.
6. Fellow will routinely teach hands-on ultrasound-guided techniques to residents at a weekly workshop during their CMH rotation.

Duty Hours

1. Fellow routinely works week days from 6:30am-5:00pm. However, s/he will work until the case is completed.
2. Fellow will be on home beeper call one-two times a week and possibly one-two weekends a month.
3. The 80-hour week rules will be maintained at all times.
4. Fellow may take call during their Research assigned time.
5. Fellow will complete a monthly duty hours survey on New Innovations, and the Program Directors will review the report monthly
   

Fellow Benefits

In addition to departmental benefits, fellows funded through the Department of Anesthesiology receive:

1. Memberships to the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) and American Society of Regional Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (ASRA)
2. Funding for two professional society meetings (ASRA, IARS, ASA, or SPA)
3. A copy of  a regional anesthesia textbook

Click Here for Application and Selection Process