Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship
About the Program
Established in 2015, the Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) fellowship program at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University/NYC Health and Hospitals Kings County has always aimed to train well-rounded pediatric hospitalists who will excel as clinicians, teachers and researchers, committed to the provisioning of high quality, evidence-based care.
With the resources available at SUNY Downstate, Maimonides Medical Center & Kings County Hospital and its established tradition of excellence in medical education and research, our program fully prepares fellows to take on any role within the broad scope of Pediatric Hospital Medicine. Fellows are exposed to diverse clinical settings as well as follow a flexible curriculum and schedule that will allow them to adapt their fellowship experience to their career goals. Instruction in research and quality improvement (QI) methodology will be provided, as well as opportunities for advanced training through the SUNY Downstate School of Public Health’s Advanced Certificate in Public Health program and the NYC Health and Hospital’s Kings County Health Administration Scholars Program (HASP). Additionally, fellows will have numerous opportunities to build their teaching portfolio working with medical students and residents.
The PHM fellowship program was ACGME initially accredited in July 2020 and currently has Continued Accreditation. We accept one fellow per year and welcome all those who are looking to join a group of dedicated professionals caring for children in an ever-changing and always exciting multi-cultural Brooklyn!
The two-year curriculum closely follows the framework developed by the national group of program directors and reflects the current training requirements for PHM fellowship programs.
Two years of training consist of 26 blocks of a 4-week duration, or 13 per academic year. Blocks are divided into 8 clinical blocks, 8 scholarship blocks, and 8 individual blocks, with 2 blocks of vacation.
Clinical Blocks:
- 4 blocks at NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County’s (KCHC), Maimoinides Medical Center and University Hospital at Downstate’s (UHD) pediatric inpatient units
- 1 block Pediatric ER
- 1 block Newborn Nursery
- 1 block community hospital at NYC Health and Hospitals/Woodhull Hospital
- Moderate sedation training longitudinally throughout the 2 years of fellowship
Scholarship Blocks:
Fellows will acquire knowledge and skills in biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, research design, and Quality Improvement (QI) methodology through a series of lectures and workshops. Fellows in our program are eligible for a tuition-free Advanced Certificate in Public Health from the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University School of Public Health.
For those trainees interested in gaining a more robust QI and clinical leadership foundation there is an opportunity to apply to the Healthcare Administration Scholars Program (HASP) program, a 20-month program offered by NYC Health andHospitals/Kings County’s (KCHC) that seeks to create the next generation of clinical quality experts through formal training in healthcare administration, exposure to hospital leadership, mentorship and hands-on experience.
Fellows will have opportunities to present their scholarly work towards the end of their training.
Individual Blocks:
The remaining individual blocks are tailored to each fellow’s interest and may include additional clinical rotations or time for scholarship projects. Fellows are encouraged to select from the available subspecialty rotations at SUNY Downstate and Kings County Hospital, but requests for extramural electives can also be approved.
Examples of available electives include:
- Simulation elective at Health and Hospitals Simulation Center
- Complex care elective at Ditmas Park Children's Hospital
- Emergency Preparedness Elective
- Point-of-Care Ultrasound Elective
- Informatics Elective
- Health Advocacy Elective
- Child Abuse and Advocacy Elective
- Clinical Electives in subspecialty of interest (GI, Hematology-Oncology, Pulmonology, ID, Neurology, etc.)
- Child Psychiatry
- Pediatric Surgery
- Pediatric Radiology
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Elective
- Healthcare Administration Elective
- Teaching Elective
- Additional inpatient electives
Formal Didactic Curriculum:
The fellowship program has a 2-year didactic schedule that seeks to cover all topics in the contents for the PHM boards as well as other matters relevant to the development of an academic pediatric hospitalist. Fellows also take part in monthly journal clubs that will provide them with the skills to formally appraise the medical literature. In addition, every other month there is a combined Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Pediatric Intensive Care, and Pediatric Hospital Medicine didactic conference.
Faculty
Melvyn Braiman, M.D. – Program Director
Email: melvyn.braiman@downstate.edu
Jeremiah Cleveland, M.D.- Associate Program Director
Melanie Cheng, M.D. - Associate Program Director
Saema Khandakar, M.D.
Ratna Basak, M.D.
Ahmed Aly, M.D.
Greta Tim – Program Coordinator
Phone: (718) 270-1911
Email: greta.tim@downstate.edu
Fellows:
Lauren Rothe, MD – First-year Fellow
Lauretta Oseni, MD – Second-year Fellow
Past Fellows:
Class of 2023 Shyna Wrublik
Class of 2022 Bari Winik
Class of 2021 Katherine Guth
Class of 2020 Risa Bochner
Class of 2019 Ahmed Youssef
Class of 2018 Ahmed Aly
Application to our fellowship are accepted through AAMC Electronic Residency Application System (ERAS). Information on the application process can be found at the ERAS for Fellowships website. In the application we require the applicant’s CV, three (3) letters of recommendation (program director letter is highly encouraged) and a personal statement. Once applications are reviewed, selected applicants will be contacted to schedule an interview. All Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine Fellowships participate in the NRMP Pediatric Specialties Match.
We are able to sponsor applicants with J1 visas.