Critical Care Medicine

Mission Statement

The Mission of the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) Fellowship is to educate and train our fellows to become recognized leaders in the field by providing exemplary, evidence-based care for critically ill children, conducting cutting-edge research, and serving as advocates for children afflicted with life-threatening medical problems. We are committed to developing trainees who will recognize, investigate, and correct structural inequities in healthcare.

Curriculum

Educational goals are met through an established curriculum. Focused clinical curriculum is centered on weekly fellows conference meetings at which advanced principles of physiology and patient management are discussed, monthly pediatric cardiac critical care conferences, and weekly division chief bedside rounds. Additional learning opportunities include didactic sessions, directed readings, mortality and morbidity conferences, quality improvement meetings, laboratory meetings, research conferences, journal clubs, and simulation training. Fellows receive formal education in biostatistics and study design, the ethical and legal aspects of critical illness, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) administration, and scientific writing.

Clinical Training

The most important aspect of education in critical care always starts and ends with on-the-job clinical training. Fellows are exposed to patients of all levels of illness severity and complexity, from children with bronchiolitis to those requiring cutting-edge reconstructive surgeries, technological support, and organ transplants. Our fellows lead the clinical team for all PICU patients and are leaders throughout the hospital in the care of critically ill patients. Clinical training takes place at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, one of the largest pediatric facilities in the country. The pediatric critical care medicine division oversees three clinical services, with a total of 41 PICU beds: a 14-bed pediatric cardiovascular ICU (CVICU), a 13-bed medical/surgical PICU, and a 14-bed pediatric neuro ICU. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) cases (approximately 50 per year) are taken care of in the CVICU and the general PICU. Fellows are also central to medical triage and emergency response throughout the children’s hospital.

The breakdown of clinical versus elective time is as follows (and may vary depending on the overall needs of the program and individual fellows):

First Year
Clinical service: 30 weeks
Anesthesiology: 4 weeks
Research / Elective: 12 weeks
Vacation: 4 weeks

Second Year
Clinical service: 20 weeks
Research / elective: 28 weeks
Vacation: 4 weeks

Third Year
Clinical service: 18 weeks
Research / elective: 30 weeks
Vacation: 4 weeks

Research Training

The rich research environment of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) is available for mentored laboratory, clinical, and translational research experience. All fellows have an individually tailored scholarship oversight committee convened to follow and advise them throughout their training in research or scholarly activities. For fellows interested in pursuing laboratory-based research, multiple relationships exist with top laboratories at Columbia, offering a rich experience in active areas of basic science investigation, including: stem cells in brain injury and mechanisms of brain injury; lipidomics and metabolomics; stem cells in lung injury and transplantation; and local immunity and T-cell responses in respiratory infections.

The Division of Pediatric Critical Care and Hospital Medicine houses the Center for Host-Pathogen Interaction with research and mentorship opportunities from clinician-scientists and PhD scientists working at the intersection of virology, molecular biology, and immunology.

In addition, the division has active research programs with on-going investigations in the following areas: respiratory failure; bioinformatics; resuscitation after cardiac arrest; computational genetics; inflammatory states in critical illness; equity in critical care; multi-institutional cardiac critical care registries; simulation; waveform analysis of monitor data; informed consent; non-invasive ventilation; and bioethics.

Education

We strive for a holistic and synergistic educational model. People learn in a variety of ways, and so we expose our fellows to topics via different, harmonized modalities to ensure that as many learning styles as possible are covered. Fundamental physiological concepts are highlighted each week, which build on one another as fellows learn how the body functions in normal and injured states. Senior fellows teach junior fellows and residents to enhance comprehension through teaching. Fellows attend weekly didactic lectures by PICU faculty, which are targeted at these basic physiology topics. Our director of simulation, Tarif Choudhury, coordinates high-fidelity simulations to reinforce these topics alongside trained simulation staff from the Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center. All of this occurs in the rich environment of academic appraisal within the Section of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, which hosts a weekly mix of case conferences, morbidity & mortality rounds, quality improvement conferences, journal clubs, research and scholarly updates, and other academic conferences. Fellows attend and regularly present at these conferences. Fellows also attend section- and department-specific seminars on career planning, research, and academic life.

A career in pediatric critical care is immensely rewarding, but also necessarily involves many challenges unique to supporting critically ill children and their families every day. We host regular debriefs and hold workshops for fellows and faculty to discuss topics such as resilience, challenging conversations, perspective, and longevity in a field that often evokes strong emotional responses.

Why Columbia

We provide outstanding, multidisciplinary care for critically ill children who are particularly vulnerable based on the complexity of their underlying illnesses. Our program offers fellows a diverse training in clinical, administrative, educational, and research-based PCCM at a state-of-the-art pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), in a children’s hospital with the highest case mix index (CMI) in the nation. The PCCM division oversees three clinical services. The 14-bed cardiac ICU (CVICU) cares for postoperative congenital heart surgery patients beyond the newborn period as well as heart failure patients peri-transplant, with our faculty and fellows as primary providers. The 13-bed medical/surgical PICU provides care to a wide range of critically ill patients including those with severe respiratory failure, pulmonary hypertension, severe infections, solid organ and stem cell transplantation, and other post-operative patients. The 14-bed pediatric neuro ICU takes care of trauma patients for our level 1 pediatric trauma program, post-operative spine and brain surgery patients, complicated epilepsy, stroke, diabetic ketoacidosis, and patients with primary neuromuscular disease.

The training program commenced in 1999 and is fully accredited by the ACGME. In addition to the standard three years of training, the fellowship supports the career advancement needs of its individual fellows. This includes specialized programs such as the physician scientist development program and diverse T-32 grant positions for research, with access to TL-1 and other grant funding mechanisms via the Irving Institute. Scholarly projects are customized to the individual fellow and developed jointly with program leadership and mentors. The program also welcomes fellows who are engaged in training in two subspecialties such as pediatric neurology, pediatric cardiology, infectious disease, palliative care, and adult critical care medicine.

Benefits

Residents are employees of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and affiliated with Columbia University Irving Medical Center. With these affiliations come many benefits!

Current Fellows

How to Apply

Applications to our fellowship are accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) system. Materials are accepted during the summer and early fall of the year preceding the start of fellowship. The deadline for completed applications materials is September 1st of the year preceding the start of fellowship. Persons who wish to apply must be board eligible or board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Please note that a completed application includes:

• Completed ERAS forms
• Three letters of recommendation, including one letter from the applicant's department chairman or residency director
• Curriculum vitae
• Additional information, such as personal statements and manuscript reprints are welcomed.

Acceptances to the fellowship are made through the Pediatric Specialties Fall Match of the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP).

Applicants to the program may wish to consider additional clinical and research training experiences that may be available for selected fellows. These experiences include:

• Combined training in two pediatric subspecialties
• Concentrated research training through the Physician Scientist Development Program
• Concentrated clinical research training through the School of Public Health scholarships. Applicants wishing to pursue any of these opportunities must identify themselves to the program director early in the application process.

Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are equal opportunity employers; applications from women and minorities are encouraged. Please note that Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital do not sponsor H1B visa trainees.

Contact

Andrew S. Geneslaw, MD, MS
Fellowship Director
212-305-8458
asg2195@cumc.columbia.edu

Bennett Weinerman
Associate Fellowship Director
212-305-8458
bw2681@cumc.columbia.edu

Patrice Pryce
Associate Fellowship Director
212-305-8458
pp2725@cumc.columbia.edu

Ana Mateo
Program Manager
212-305-8458
amm2208@cumc.columbia.edu

Past Fellows

2024

Elorm Avakame, MD, MPP
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Kinjal Desai, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Cardiac Intensivist
NYP/Weil-Cornell Medical Center

Matthew Spence, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
Children’s Minnesota

Ariel Sugarman, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
NYP/Weil-Cornell Medical Center
NYP/Brooklyn Methodist

2023

Matthew Nelligan, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
NYP/Weil-Cornell Medical Center

George Ru, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
NYP/Weil-Cornell Medical Center
NYP/Brooklyn Methodist

Bennett Weinerman, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Program Director
Pediatric Critical Care
NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

2022

Claire Hennigan, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
NYU Langone Medical Center
New York, NY

Nadir Ijaz, MD, MHS
Instructor of Pediatrics
Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute of Global Health
Pediatric Critical Care
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital

Joshua Motelow, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Patrice Pryce, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Program Director
Pediatric Critical and Palliative Care
NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Michele Smith, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care
University of Rochester Medical Center/ Golisano Children’s Hospital

2021

Anna Silberman, MD
Assistant Professor
Associate Fellowship Director
Pediatric Critical Care
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Stacie Kahn, MD
Pediatric Intensivist
Maimonides Medical Center

2020

Jennifer Chapman, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Hackensack Meridian Health/Jospeh M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital

Brian Jonat, MD
Associate Director, Patient Safety and Pharmacovigilance
Boehringer Ingelheim
Mamaroneck, NY

Jennifer Salant, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Advanced Care Team
NYP/Weil-Cornell Medical Center