Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Residency Program will now be participating in the National Resident Matching Program and ERAS. Please apply accordingly though these programs.

Timeline for the 2009 Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Recruitment Season

The Division of Neonatal Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics of the Oregon Health & Science University has seven staff neonatologists and three fellows in the Neonatal Perinatal medicine. We are in charge of the 46 bed Doernbecher Neonatal Care Center (DNCC) in the University Hospital. An obstetric center adjacent to the DNCC was completed in 1996.

The DNCC admits approximately 1000 Newborns per year, about 70% of whom are born in the University Hospital. The rest are transported by our team from all over Oregon and Southern Washington. The transports are carried out by nurses and respiratory therapists about 90% of the time, with neonatal fellow or neonatal staff participation with the nurses and respiratory therapists in the remainder. Our DNCC is the only one in Oregon with full neonatal cardiology diagnostic services and neonatal cardiac surgery, and the only unit with a fellowship program.

The full-time staff has a wide variety of research interests. Linda Wallen, M.D., the chief of the Division has a research focus on neonatal nutrition. Cynthia McEvoy, M.D. is involved in applying pulmonary function testing in preterm and term infants to answer a variety of clinical questions. Joseph Gilhooly, M.D. is the director of the Pediatric Residency Program and subsequently has interest in examining the best methods of resident learning and teaching. De-Ann Pillers, MD, Ph.D, is active in molecular genetics research studies, and Sue Ann Smith, MD. Is working on pharmacokinetics. Patricia Spitale, M.D., is in charge of the neurodevelopmental follow-up clinic and is interested in developmental research.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has accredited our fellowship program in Neonatal -Perinatal Medicine. The program consists of three years' clinical and research experience. The fellows rotate in having the clinical responsibilities of daytime fist-line back-up to residents, and transport organization. The fellows and the full-time staff share night and weekend first-line back-up and transport call. The fellows have at least 60% of their time available for research, reading and clinical projects.

The research training of our fellows involves projects in either clinical or basic research. The projects are mentored by neonatal faculty members, but also with collaboration from members of the pediatric or other departments. Weekly seminars focus on the ongoing research projects, and provide instructions in project design, grant writing, statistics, etc.

The clinical training is provided in the neonatal care unit and the Labor & Delivery service. Fellows work under the guidance of Neonatal faculty and supervise the house officers and neonatal nurse practitioners. Because our hospital serves as a major referral center, fellows will benefit from exposure to a full spectrum of fetal and neonatal diseases. Clinical experience will include parenteral nutrition, mechanical ventilation, high frequency ventilation, surfactant treatment, etc.

A conference and seminar program in fetal and neonatal medicine covers topics such as placental function, fetal physiology, embryology, teratology, genetics and pre-natal diagnosis, pharmacology, maternal endocrinology, parturition, fetal/neonatal organ function, neonatal diseases and their management.

The Department of Obstetrics has an active High Risk Service, which receives many referrals. There are joint conferences of the Neonatal and Obstetric staff and residents, and joint research projects are in process. Rotation of the Neonatal fellow through the High risk Obstetric Service can be arranged.

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