Curriculum

Overview

The Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery Fellowship is a one-year fellowship that exposes the fellow to the following areas of interest:

• Cranial vault reconstruction with Virtual Surgical Planning
• Cleft lip and palate care
• General pediatric plastic surgery
• Pediatric craniofacial surgery and distraction osteogenesis
• Orthognathic surgery (cleft and airway obstruction)
• Pediatric hand surgery
• Brachial plexus and thoracic outlet syndrome
• Microtia reconstruction
• General reconstruction, including free flaps for limb salvage
• Facial reanimation
• Hemangioma and vascular malformations

Clinical Duties

The fellow will operate primarily at Cincinnati Children’s Burnet Campus and occasionally at Liberty Campus. The opportunity exists to operate at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC) for select cases. In the operating room, the fellow will assume a progressive transitional role from chief resident to attending staff. The fellow will take an active role in resident teaching and guidance through the cases. The fellow will coordinate with the residents every week to ensure proper case assignment and coverage.

The fellow will direct inpatient care on daily rounds and lead the plastic surgery team, consisting of one senior/chief resident, three nurse practitioners and medical students.

The fellow will be responsible for inpatient consults during the day. These are generally NICU consults for patients with skull or jaw anomalies and airway concerns. They average about one per week. Emergency department consults are covered by the on-call residents.

The fellow is expected to attend at least one attending clinic per week and the monthly Cleft and Craniofacial Center’s multidisciplinary team clinic.

Didactic Activities

• The fellow will lead a monthly orthognathic surgery conference with the plastic surgery attendings and orthodontist to discuss upcoming cases.
• The fellow will lead a monthly craniofacial conference with the plastic surgery and neurosurgery attendings to discuss past and upcoming cases.
• The fellow will attend the resident-led weekly case conference and grand rounds at UCMC. The fellow is expected to present at grand rounds once during the year.
• The fellow is responsible for the Morbidity and Mortality conference and internally reporting M&Ms for Cincinnati Children’s patients.
• The fellow has the opportunity to attend the Upper Airway conference and tumor board.
• The fellow has the opportunity for a monthly one-on-one teaching session with the program director to learn the basics of dental anatomy and orthognathic surgery.

Research

• The fellow will be involved in clinical research and set aside time during the week to do so. The fellow is expected to submit at least one manuscript for publication.
• The fellow will lead the monthly research meeting with the attendings to discuss research projects.
• Presentations at national/international meetings are encouraged.

Call

• Aside from daily inpatient consults during the week, there are no overnight or weekend call responsibilities for the fellow.
• The fellow operates under an Ohio medical training license and does not take attending-level call.
• The fellow is expected to round on the inpatient service one weekend per month.

Salary

• The fellow is paid at the appropriate postgraduate year (PGY) level.
• An educational stipend is provided to offset costs associated with travel for conferences, equipment, books or association dues.
• A moving allowance is allocated for fellows and automatically deposited with the first paycheck

Evaluation

• The fellow will be evaluated every six months by the program director.
• The fellow will meet weekly with the fellowship director to monitor progress and address issues as they arise.
• At the completion of the fellowship year, it is expected that the fellow will be able to demonstrate thorough knowledge of craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery and be able to practice and operate independently.