Medical Student Education

During their major clinical year, students at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) spend six weeks on the pediatric clerkship, either at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital or Harlem Hospital. Under the direction of the Pediatric Clerkship Director Marguerite (Maggie) Costich, MD, MS and Associate Pediatric Clerkship Directors Kathleen Brennan, MD, MS and Kelsey Fawcett, MD, students learn to care for children and families in a variety of patient care settings and develop the clinical skills, diagnostic reasoning, basic management strategies, and interpersonal and communication skills core to the practice of pediatrics. Department faculty members and pediatric residents are involved in every aspect of medical student education, from mentorship and didactic conferences to advising on career directions.

Students are exposed to both normal child development and the role illness plays in the lives of children and families. Their patient care experience is supplemented with daily rounds, conferences, case-based seminars, and team-based learning modules.

In their final year, students can avail themselves of numerous pediatric electives ranging from sub-internships on the general medicine service to virtually all subspecialty divisions within the department. In 2023, six VP&S students matched into pediatric residency programs, two in medicine-pediatrics residency programs, and two into child neurology.

Honors and Awards

During the 2023 Babies Hospital Alumni Association annual meeting, several students received awards from Pediatrics faculty members.

• The Rebecca Schwarz Memorial Prize was awarded to Meghan Drastal. This award is presented to a senior medical student conducting outstanding research in pediatric heart disease.
• The Harry S. Altman Memorial Prize was awarded to Emma Healy. This award is presented annually to a senior medical student who demonstrates enthusiasm, eagerness, integrity, honesty, and dedication to the health and well-being of children, in the best tradition of Dr. Harry Altman.
• The Jerry Jacobs Prize was awarded to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Herman. This award is presented to a graduating student(s) who has demonstrated excellence in the differential diagnosis and treatment of disorders in children.
• The Emmett Holt Fellowship Award was awarded to Gregory Karelas. This award is presented annually to a graduating student(s) who shows exceptional promise in the field of pediatrics and dedication to children.
• The William Perry Watson Prize was awarded to Alexander Johnson and Shannon Fernandez-Ledon. This is the oldest award in Pediatrics, awarded to the member(s) of the VP&S graduating class showing the most valuable work in the study of the diseases of infants and children during regular courses.

Team-Based Learning, Learning from Experts, and Feedback

During their pediatrics clerkships, students prepare for learning sessions, then self-assess in person, and discuss questions and cases in small, then larger learning groups. Topics and facilitators include:

• Fever in children, Sarah Schechter, MD and the pediatric hospital medicine fellows
• Common pediatric infections, Shivang Shah, MD
• Pediatric gastroenterology, Elizabeth Berg, MD and the pediatric gastroenterology fellows
• Pediatric nephrology, Catherine Kavanagh, MD

In 2023, the team implemented a pediatric cardiology team-based learning unit, created by Denis Donovan, MD, an alum of VP&S and the NYP/Columbia pediatric residency program, and a recent graduate of the pediatric cardiology fellowship. (Dr. Donovan received the Fellow of the Year award from the 2022 graduating pediatric residents at NYP/Columbia.) This TBL is currently lead by the pediatric cardiology education fellows.

The Pediatric Clerkship team also implemented a system, with accompanying resident and faculty education and development, to provide timely and actionable feedback to students in all clinical settings of the rotation using workplace-based assessments (WBAs). WBAs allow learners to incorporate changes in practice and to focus on skill-building. The team is also using WBAs to provide peer feedback through student learning small groups.

Dr. Costich led a study looking at education and training of faculty and workplace-based assessments in the ambulatory pediatric rotation, with a focus on the experience of the faculty preceptor. The study was recently accepted for publication.

Pediatric Electives

Steve Caddle, MD, MPH, director of pediatric electives and sub-internships, is also the department's Electives Committee representative. Through quarterly meetings Dr. Caddle has established a community for electives directors that provides important support for students deciding on pediatrics as a career trajectory.

This year, electives directors participated in a workshop, “Mitigating Bias in Narrative Evaluations and Letters of Recommendation,” to support them in providing unbiased comments in grading and letters for students.

Pediatric Electives Directors

• Linda Aponte-Patel, MD, UIM Pediatrics Elective (Virtual)
• Priyanka Asrani, MD and Usha Krishnan, MD, Pediatric Cardiology
• David Bell, MD, MPH, Young Men’s Health
• Karen Soren, MD, Adolescent Medicine
• Aliva De, MD and Alexandra Kass, MD, Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine
• Kelsey Fawcett, MD, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Joanna Gendreau, DO, Hematology, Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant
• Andrew Geneslaw, MD, MS, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Sub-Internship
• Candace Johnson, MD, Pediatric Infectious Disease
• Catherine Kavanagh, MD, Pediatric Nephrology
• Sivan Kinberg, MD and Sarah Lusman, MD, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Mervat Nassef, MD, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
• Sharon Oberfield, MD and Patricia Vuguin, MD, Pediatric Endocrinology
• Kristina Orfali, PhD, Pediatric Ethics
• Natasha Piracha, MD, Pediatric Palliative Care
• David Rubenstein, MD, Rakesh Sahni, MD, and Helen Towers, MD, Neonatology Sub-Internship

Pediatric Applicant Advising for 2023

Steve Caddle, MD, MPH and Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE co-lead the group that advises students applying to residencies in pediatrics, medicine-pediatrics, pediatric genetics, and pediatric physician-scientist programs. All students are also paired with an individual advisor in the department. These advisors include:

• Kathleen Brennan, MD, MS
• Marguerite (Maggie) Costich, MD, MS
• Christine Krause, MD
• Beth Prabhu, MD
• Natasha Piracha, MD