Related Medical Services

Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine Fellowship

Delaware Area

The Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Training Program — offered jointly by Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Christiana Hospital, and Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) — provides a unique and comprehensive training experience that will lead to a career in academic or clinical neonatology.

The program, leveraging the diverse strengths of all 3 hospitals, provides a well-rounded experience in the clinical care of critically ill newborns and extensive training in the principles of clinical and basic science research.

About Our Fellowship Program

Our unique program takes full advantage of 3 hospital-based locations in the Delaware Valley, each with its own unique strengths. You’ll do rotations on all 3 campuses, with emphasis initially on the clinical care and follow-up of the critically ill neonate.

You’ll gain experience in the management of high-risk pregnancy; clinical care of the acutely ill newborn with medical, surgical, or cardiovascular diseases; as well as the long-term follow-up care of previously ill newborns.

You’ll attend a wide range of didactic lectures on core topics and electives and will be encouraged to do a rotation in genetics to expand your knowledge of molecular genetics and prenatal counseling. Other electives include teratology, infectious disease, neurology, gastroenterology, and radiology.

You’ll also be assigned to attend a high-risk follow-up clinic to evaluate infants you previously treated in the intensive care nursery. As your training progresses through years 2 and 3, emphasis will shift to research.

Program Components

 
3 Unique Clinical Settings

You’ll do your rotations at all 3 hospital facilities. Although the campuses are located within 45 minutes of each other, you’ll work at only one of these clinical sites on any given day:

  • Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, located in Wilmington, Del., is one of the country’s top pediatric hospitals and is home to a 14-bed surgical NICU and 14-bed cardiac intensive care unit. During rotations here, you’ll help care for surgical neonates, including those requiring cardiothoracic surgery. The hospital also offers Nemours Partners for Perinatal Management, a broad multidisciplinary team of specialists who screen for and treat a wide range of congenital problems.
  • Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, located in Philadelphia and affiliated with Sidney Kimmel Medical College, has a large delivery unit, a 40-bed NICU, and a maternal fetal medicine department that evaluates high-risk pregnancies. It serves as an obstetrics referral center and is a regional Level III tertiary referral site for both extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and head cooling. Its urban setting exposes you to a highly diverse patient population.
  • Christiana Hospital, located in Newark, Del., is the only general tertiary care facility in the state and is an obstetrics referral center. With more than 7,000 annual deliveries, the hospital has a maternal fetal medicine department that evaluates high-risk pregnancies and a Level III NICU with an average daily census of 49. For more than a quarter century, the hospital’s advanced neonatal transport team has served as a mobile NICU for the community it serves. The hospital offers head and total body hypothermia to treat hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Its neonatal palliative care team includes two clinicians who are board certified in hospice and palliative care medicine and serve as faculty members in our program.
 
Program Activities

With fellows from other programs, you’ll participate in a variety of didactic sessions, including basic research training and statistics, as well as pediatric grand rounds.

Other activities include:
  • daily teaching rounds during clinical rotations
  • orientation lectures on ventilator management and ECMO
  • neonatal-perinatal, laboratory, and radiology rounds
  • fellow physiologic lecture series (weekly lectures that cover the entire content of the subspecialty certifying examination)
  • classic and neonatal journal clubs
  • fellow board review
  • conferences and seminars on fellow research, quality
    improvement, professionalism/communication, morbidity and mortality, and fetal therapy
 
Master's Opportunity at Thomas Jefferson University

You may also pursue a Masters degree through Thomas Jefferson University, concurrently or following your fellowship training. They offer programs in:

  • human clinical investigation (NIH-sponsored)
  • public health
  • healthcare quality and safety

These fulfill the scholarly activity requirement of the American Board of Pediatrics.

Research Opportunities

The research component of your fellowship training will add significant dimension and depth to your skills and help make you a better-rounded clinician. The first year includes a series of lectures on study design, grant preparation, data management, the IRB process, and related topics, as well as a mandatory 8-week course in statistical analysis.

During your first year you’ll focus on discussing and developing topics for your projects and will attend a series of lectures on study design, grant preparation, data management, the IRB process, and related topics, as well as a mandatory 8-week course in statistical analysis. Under faculty supervision, you’ll be guided through the preparation, implementation, data analysis, and publication of scholarly activity as required by the sub-board of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine of the American Board of Pediatrics.

During years 2 and 3, you’ll choose from a wide range of research areas and will be encouraged to pursue projects in basic science, performance improvement, and clinical research. We also have a strong program in Quality Improvement Research. Active clinical research areas include a long history of neonatal epidemiology and outcomes research, and work on topics including infectious disease transmission, family stress, maternal depression, and many others. Clinical research is also supported by research nurses.

To help guide you through the process and assess your progress and productivity, you’ll meet periodically with our Scholarly Oversight Committee. Available basic science research experiences include work on translational genetic research in the laboratory of Janet Larson, MD and Zubair Aghai, MD, and newborn respiratory physiology in the laboratories of Thomas Shaffer, MSE, PhD, director of the Center for Pediatric Lung Research, and Marla Wolfson, MS, PhD. The clinical research opportunities at Christiana under the direction of David Paul, MD, focus on neonatal epidemiology and other related topics.

Learn More About Research at Nemours »


Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is like no other in the region — designed by families, for families.

About Our Hospital in Delaware

The Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is a multispecialty, tertiary care teaching institution located on a 300-acre estate in the scenic Brandywine Valley in Wilmington, Del.

As a program participant, you’ll have access to advanced computer systems for patient care activities, electronic mail, word processing, internet access and library research functions. Among the hospital’s amenities for all staff are:

  • free parking
  • park-like setting
  • gym/fitness center
  • on-site child care center for children of staff
  • massage therapy

Learn More About duPont Hospital for Children »

Contact Us

Veronica Sapp

Program Coordinator
(215) 955-2074
veronica.sapp@nemours.org
Zubair Aghai, MD

Program Director
(215) 955-2894
zubair.aghai@nemours.org

Apply for This Fellowship

Application Requirements
Deadline: April 30, 2013
  • complete an electronic ERAS application
  • completed residency in pediatrics at an accredited program
  • unrestricted Delaware state medical license
  • Delaware state training license
  • curriculum vitae
  • personal statement
  • medical school transcript
  • USMLE scores (all three levels)
  • three references
How to Apply

Resources

More About This Program