Fellowships

Overview

The Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Fellowship at the Shriners Children's Northern California and UC Davis Children’s Hospital offers in-depth, hands-on exposure to all aspects of pediatric orthopedic care at two high-volume centers. The fellow will be closely mentored by 11 pediatric orthopedic surgeons and will experience a flexible schedule that allows for complex, elective pediatric orthopedic and spine surgeries at Shriners Children's, and elective and urgent pediatric orthopedic surgeries at UC Davis Children's Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center. The fellowship is accredited by the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA).

Learn more.

Overview

Shriners Shriners Children's Northern California’s Pediatric Hand and Upper Extremity fellowship offers in-depth, hands-on exposure to all aspects of pediatric hand and upper extremity care. For more information, please contact:

Department of Orthopedic Surgery
2425 Stockton Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95817

Phone: 916-453-2068
Fax: 916-453-2202
Email: ncl-handfellowship@shrinenet.org

Fellow Experience

This fellowship lasts 6–12 months, and focuses on:

• Medical knowledge
• Basic science
• Anatomy of the upper limb
• Hand surgery knowledge
• Patient care
• Information gathering
• Preparation for procedures
• Technical skills
• Organization skills
• Decision-making as it applies to options, timing, psycho-social implications, and overall care of the child
• Interpersonal and communication skills

Prerequisite Training/Selection Criteria

Orthopedic surgeons who have completed either a hand fellowship or plastic surgeons who have completed a hand fellowship are eligible to apply. All qualified applicants are interviewed by each faculty member and ranked according to ability, interest, communication skills, motivation and integrity. The program does not discriminate with regard to sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, disability, or any other applicable legally protected status.

Goals and Objectives for Training

Our program is one of five in the United States and the faculty of these five programs are working together to develop a common curriculum for the Pediatric Hand and Upper Extremity fellowship. Currently, neither of the fields of pediatric orthopedic surgery or hand surgery provide adequate experience in the care of children’s upper extremity problems, which include congenital malformations, trauma and post-traumatic deformities including burns, and neuromuscular conditions (brachial plexus birth palsy, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy).

We expect our fellow to master the clinical and surgical skills for the management of the child with a complex upper limb problem, through exposure to all aspects of care: assessment and diagnosis (primarily in clinic); management (clinic and in-patient) and surgical planning and technical skill. We expect them to gain competency in teaching orthopedic residents, pediatric orthopedic fellows and hand fellows and we expect them to participate in clinical research activities.

Fellowship training is based on the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) / Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Core Competencies (see below).

Program certifications: No certificate currently exists for Pediatric Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery. Surgery of the Hand is a subspecialty approved by the ABMS and the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS).

Practice-based Learning and Improvement

Fellows will begin the lifelong process of personal continuing medical education and the application to the practice situation. Review of care and outcomes will be done on a routine basis with the goal of improving patient care within one’s practice. This will include:

• Preparation and participation in case discussions where decisions and ramifications of care are assessed
• Awareness of associated and relative morbidity of different treatment options
• Application of what is learned in a conference setting to continually improve knowledge base and patient care

Systems Based Practice: Fellows should understand the continuum of care and their role in managing, not only the acute patient encounter, but also the resources needed to optimize care outcomes. This includes:

• Integration of patient care into the local practice setting with respect to referral patterns, need for, and sequence of pre-operative assessments
• Awareness of the cost of care options being provided; and assumption of stewardship of resources in seeking the best options and value in patient care
• Adherence to “best practices’ per hospital

Teaching Staff

• Claire Manske, M.D.

Overview

Burn surgery fellows will gain extensive experience in both the acute and reconstructive management of pediatric and adult burn patients. The fellows will help manage burn patients at both Shriners Children's Northern California and the UC Davis Health's Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center. Combined, these institutions serve as the regional pediatric and adult burn centers for Northern California with an average of 600 inpatient admissions per year.

David Greenhalgh, M.D., FACS, chief of burn surgery at UC Davis Health's Regional Burn Center and at Shriners Children's Northern California, oversees an intensive and comprehensive curriculum for the burn fellowship program along with Tina Palmieri, M.D., director of the Firefighters Burn Institute's Regional Burn Center, and assistant chief of burn surgery at Shriners Children's Northern California, Soman Sen, M.D., assistant professor of burn surgery, Pirko Maguina, assistant professor of burn and plastic surgery, and Hugh Vu, M.D., an attending plastic surgeon at Shriners Children's Northern California.

• Number of fellowship positions per year: Two
• Yearly average number of acute and reconstructive burn cases: 600

Areas of Training

• Acute resuscitation and critical care management of pediatric and adult burn patients in the burn ICU
• Surgical management and reconstruction of acute burns
• Physical rehabilitation, nutrition and psychological therapy for pediatric and adult burn patients Reconstructive surgery for burn survivors
• Clinical Research – each fellow is expected to participate in at least one clinical research project and submit an abstract for presentation at the national American Burn Association meeting

Applications

Click here to download application (PDF)

Please return completed application and reference letters to ucdburnfellowship@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

For more information, contact:

David G. Greenhalgh, M.D., F.A.C.S.
2425 Stockton Blvd., Suite 718
Sacramento, CA 95817

Phone: 916-453-2050
Fax: 916-453-2373
Email: dggreenhalgh@ucdavis.edu