Overview
Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein launched its ACGME-accredited fellowship in 2007. The Division, under the leadership of Dr. Deepa Rastogi, includes six board-certified pediatric pulmonary specialists and a sleep specialist, with expertise in asthma, chronic lung disease of prematurity, pulmonary complications of systemic diseases, care of technology-dependent children, and sleep. The Respiratory and Sleep Medicine division is also actively involved in clinical, translational and basic science research, with grants from the NIH and private foundations.
What Our Fellowship Offers
Our three-year fellowship training program provides fellows with extensive clinical exposure at Children's Hospital at Montefiore, the teaching hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It includes evaluation and management of congenital airway malformations, asthma, chronic lung and chest wall disorders, respiratory failure, lung infections, and complex cardiac conditions with pulmonary manifestations, as well as sleep pathology and a mechanical ventilation program. In addition, our fellows rotate at New York University for one month each year, gaining experience in the management of cystic fibrosis patients.
Fellows have ample opportunities to perform procedures including bronchoscopies, of which we perform approximately 150 a year. There is extensive outpatient and inpatient interaction with other subspecialties, such as allergy-immunology, otorhinolaryngology, anesthesia, cardiology and gastroenterology. Children's Hospital at Montefiore is equipped with a fully operating lung function laboratory, with equipment for body plethysmography, exercise testing, methacholine challenge, impulse oscillometry, and quantification of exhaled nitric oxide, as well as a state-of-the-art, four-bed sleep laboratory.
Program Director: Deepa Rastogi, MD
Specialties:
Chief, Division of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine
Director, Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship Program
Curriculum
The curriculum consists of approximately six months of inpatient responsibility in the first year, three in the second year and three in the third year, during which fellows are attentively supervised by an attending pulmonologist. Fellows have three months of outpatient rotation/elective during their first year, two months in their second year, and one month in their third year. The remainder of the 15 months is devoted to research.
Complementing the clinical, procedural and research exposure and experience is a full curriculum of lectures, journal clubs and weekly case presentations. There are also interdisciplinary meetings, such as airway conferences in which complex cases with ENT, pulmonary, gastroenterology, and cardiothoracic input are discussed, and interaction with the allergy immunology and adult pulmonology division via case-based conferences. Fellows are actively involved in this process and present on an average at one to two conferences a month.
Research
Fellows have ample opportunity to pursue research, with protected time provided for successful completion of research projects. The division members have their own basic science and clinical laboratory space. Fellows may also conduct research with affiliated divisions, such as infectious disease, hematology oncology, and allergy and immunology. The expectation is that each fellow will complete a research project, which may be a basic ("bench"), translational, or clinical patient-oriented one. The division strongly encourages presentation of the scholarly product at national conferences. A scholarship oversight committee will monitor the research activity of each fellow to ensure maximum research productivity during the fellowship. All fellows also participate in a hospital wide clinical research course. As required by the American Board of Pediatrics, the fellows also undertake a quality improvement project.
Benefits
Housing is available for our fellows based on availability. Parking is available at our facility. Each fellow receives a yearly stipend to participate in national and international meetings such as American Thoracic Society, Sleep Conference, and Chest conference. In addition, there is a stipend for literature and society dues.
First Year Fellow:
Mahmoud Abu Zahra
Second Year Fellow:
Laura Miller
Third Year Fellow:
Haitham Al-Dhmour
Applying for Our Fellowship
We accept 1 fellow per year electronically through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).
Applications should include the following documents:
- ERAS Common Application Form
- Curriculum vitae
- Personal statement
- 3 letters of recommendation
- Official medical school transcript
- USMLE transcript
- ECFMG status report (international medical graduates only)
- Photo
Starting each July, ERAS opens for applications. Trainees are encouraged to complete submissions by July, which provides ample time for the program to review all applications and schedule personal interviews for competitive applicants. Interviews will be held from August to October.