Complex and Reconstructive Spine Surgery Fellowship

Fellowship Director
Stephen L. Ondra, MD
Northwestern Neurological Surgery
676 N. St Clair St., Suite 2210
Chicago, IL 60611
Email:  sondra@nmff.org
Fax:  312-695-0225

Overview 
Spinal Deformity surgery is a discipline that involves care to the spine where spinal alignment is the primary goal of treatment.  The scope of this fellowship would include advanced reconstructive spine surgery techniques.  This would include training in skeletal deformities such as scoliosis, complex spine oncology problems, and congenital disorders of the spine. 

Details
The Complex and Reconstructive Spinal Deformity fellowship training program at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center is recognized by the ACGME.   It is a one year program based at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.   Fellows may participate in surgical cases at Children’s Memorial Hospital on occasion under the supervision of the Fellowship faculty.

Our program offers 1-2 fellowship positions per academic year.

The goal of this fellowship is to take a surgeon who is already familiar with spinal surgery and instrumentation and provide the skills in evaluation and treatment of spinal deformity.  Other advanced treatment modalities such as image guidance and minimally invasive surgery supplement the deformity training

This fellowship complements basic spinal skills learned in residency.  The fellowship will prepare the fellow to function as an independent subspecialist with proficiency in assessing the need for surgery, determining the appropriate treatment and managing patients post-operatively.

The program faculty includes 7 neurological surgeons.   Each faculty member demonstrates a strong interest in the education of fellows, sound clinical and teaching abilities, supports the goals and objectives of the program, and participates in scholarly activities.


Structure
The Complex and Reconstructive Spinal Deformity Fellowship is designed as follows:

The fellowship is divided into three blocks of study.  Fellows are on alternating schedules within those blocks to avoid overlap and maximize the educational experience and surgical opportunities within each.  Each block defines a primary area of the curriculum and educational responsibility. 

The first block is a six month block focusing on the surgical and outpatient management of major deforming conditions of the spine.  In this block, the fellow is responsible to run deformity clinical rounds, attend spinal deformity conferences and outpatient clinics and participate in major spinal deformity surgical cases.  The fellow must also supervise the management of ICU and inpatients on the deformity service in order to gain a broader understanding of the unique care needs and requirements for these patients.

The second block is a three month rotation in minimally invasive spine surgery.  This is a unique aspect of our deformity fellowship program and recognizes the increasing role that minimally invasive surgery has in spine surgery today and will play in spinal deformity surgery in the near future.  In this block, the fellow will see both deformity clinic and degenerative clinic.  Most cases will be done with our minimally invasive degenerative spine surgeons at this time.  The goal is to gain skills, understanding and expertise in the field of minimally invasive spine surgery.  The fellow is to also gain an understanding of the current limitations of the field of minimally invasive surgery as well as the possibilities that exist to advance deformity surgery.  In the end, the fellow is to integrate minimally invasive techniques into their thought process and clinical care or deformity patients.

The third block of the fellowship is one in which completion of clinical and basic science research projects begun during clinical rotations is the primary focus.  In this block, the fellow will continue to refine clinical care of deformity patients and refine their technical skills.  They should also continue with integration of minimally invasive techniques and thought into deformity surgery.  The focus however is changed with decreased responsibility in the operating room and outpatient clinics.  The focus is on completion of research and scholarly activity.  In this block, the fellow is also responsible to set up and run our weekly spine conference and it’s curriculum.

Research
Research is a mandatory component of the fellowship.  The fellowship program provides the opportunities for basic science, translational and clinical research.  It is expected that the fellow will devise and execute original laboratory work or participate in ongoing laboratory work under the direction of one of the faculty members.

Fellows will be matched with a research mentor based on mutual research interests.  The mentor will be responsible for the overall supervision of the Fellow’s research and clinical performance.  Participation in the monthly Spine research conference is required and designed to provide a mechanism for assessment of progress and for giving feedback to the research team

Fellows are expected to prepare and present research studies and manuscripts for publication (3 publications in peer review journals or textbook/year)

Weekly Conferences
In addition to daily rounds with the attending faculty, a detailed didactic program exists for the educational advantage of the Complex and Reconstructive Spinal Deformity Fellow.  Current didactic conferences relative to the fellowship include: 

Tuesday      6:15 am   Spine Pre-Operative Conference (multidisciplinary)
Tuesday      8:00 am   Deformity Conference   (Research & Clinical Activities)
Thursday     7:00 am   Spine Conference  (didactic lectures, case reviews and rounds)  


Faculty
For a complete list of the faculty for the minimally invasive spine surgery fellowship and their specialties, click here.   


Admission Prerequisites
Applicants for the Complex and Reconstructive Spinal Deformity fellowship must have completed an ACGME-accredited residency in neurological surgery or equivalent training.  Under certain circumstances, a candidate for this fellowship might be at the PGY5 or PGY6 level.  These “internal fellows” will be utilizing elective or research rotations during their core residency to achieve subspecialty training in minimally invasive techniques.  The Director of the Fellowship is responsible for ascertaining that each applicant has completed the appropriate prerequisite training.

It is not the purpose of this fellowship to address basic spinal instrumentation techniques or the treatment of basic spine problems.  Candidates for the fellowship are expected to be fully trained in spinal surgery and spinal instrumentation.

If you are interested in applying for this fellowship program, please send a

• Completed application
• Curriculum vitae
• Personal statement, and
• Three letters of recommendation, one of which must be from a Spine Surgeon, addressed to:

Stephen L. Ondra, MD
Director, Complex Spine Fellowship
Northwestern Department of Neurosurgery
676 N St. Clair, Suite 2210
Chicago, IL 60611

For More Information
If you need further information or assistance, contact Lisa Glatz by phone: 312-695-6283, fax: 312-695-0225, or email: lglatz@nmff.org.




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