Obstetric Anesthesia Fellowship Program

The Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology at Montefiore Medical Center is proud to offer an ACGME accredited fellowship. We currently offer 1 ACGME accredited position per year.

Montefiore Medical Center is a tertiary level of care medical center in the Bronx and serves a large and diverse patient population. The Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology provides anesthetic consultation and management for routine as well as high-risk parturients. The mission of the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program is guided by our institution's mission: "To heal, to teach, to discover and to advance the health of the communities we serve.” Our goal is to develop fellows into highly trained sub-specialty consultants, patient safety advocates, and scholars that adhere to the highest standards of professionalism who will become the next generation of leaders in the field.

Curriculum Design:

The one-year ACGME fellowship will consist of thirteen (13) 4 week-long blocks

The clinical rotations are as follows:

Labor & Delivery: 7 months
The labor floor will be the primary home of the obstetric anesthesiology fellow. The fellow will improve the technical skills of neuraxial anesthesia for labor analgesia, and cesarean delivery, as well as additional procedures such as cerclage placements, external cephalic versions, and fetal surgery. Here the fellow will also be exposed to management of general anesthesia for cesarean delivery. The fellow will be a key member of the obstetric anesthesia consult service, where we see many high risk parturients to create safe anesthetic plans. The fellow will work closely with all members of the labor floor care team and be an integral member of the OB anesthesia teaching team.

Maternal Fetal Medicine: 2 weeks
This rotation allows the fellow to learn about antepartum management of the high-risk patient and will focus on communication and team building with the obstetric team.

Neonatology: 2 weeks
This rotation will teach the fellow how to evaluate and resuscitate neonates in the NICU and on the labor floor. At the end of this rotation, fellows will receive their certification in neonatal resuscitation (NRP).

Research: 3 months
Scholarly activity is an integral part of the obstetric anesthesiology fellowship. Our goal is to create innovative and critically thinking physician scientists. The research rotation will be integrated into the labor floor rotations. The fellow will have 1-2 research days per week for a total of 6 per month. This is done to keep the fellow engaged in the clinical work of the labor floor.

Faculty mentors will assist the fellow with study design, data analysis, scientific writing, and presentation. The fellow is expected to participate in at least one research project with the goal of one abstract and publication. The fellow will attend and present their work at the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) Annual Meeting. The fellow is also expected to complete one Quality Improvement Project. There is a lecture series dedicated to teaching fellows how to navigate a QI project, and a faculty mentor will work closely with the fellow to implement the project.

Intensive Care Unit: 1 month
As our patients are becoming increasingly more complex, our goal is competence in caring for critically ill parturients. The fellow will spend two weeks in the intensive care unit and two weeks with the critical care consult service. There will be a focus on becoming familiar with point of care ultrasound. In preparation for this, we have a Saturday POCUS course that is taught by our cardiac anesthesiology colleagues.

Applying for Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship:

The Obstetric Anesthesia fellowship programs in the United States have agreed to participate in a Match by the San Francisco Matching Program (SF Match). You are required to apply through the SF Match in addition to submitting your application materials to our program. The SOAP application materials can be accessed through the following website:
https://www.soap.org/ob-anesthesiology-fellowships

Please be sure to include your USMLE, In-Training Exam and Basic exam scores on your application.

In addition, please send a copy of the application materials to our Program Administrator, Debbie Lopez: DEBLOPEZ@montefiore.org

We will begin accepting applications for the July 2023 position in January 2022. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you are interested in learning more about the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship, please contact:

 

Dr. Juan Davila-Velazquez
Director, Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
judavila@montefiore.org