Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Curriculum & Training
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) has 38 beds for critically ill children and supports over 1500 admissions per year. Michigan's PICU has a catchment area of the state of Michigan and surrounding Midwest.
Additionally, we serve as a referral center for many subspecialty surgical teams nationally and internationally. PICU fellows serve as transport medical command for critically ill children transported by Michigan Survival Flight.
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Clinical Care
Trainees in the U-M Medical School Department of Pediatrics' Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship gain hands-on patient care and learn to become leaders of multidisciplinary teams. Further, our fellows are exposed to the most advanced technology to support the most critically ill children, including CRRT, TPE, multiple modes of mechanical ventilation, and 3D printed bio-reabsorbed airway splints.
Our fellows also get hands-on training in ECMO from the pioneers who developed it and continue to advance the technology. Fellows are trained to perform central venous catheterization, arterial catheterization, bronchoscopy, and advanced and difficult airway management.
Through rotations in the PICU, our 30-bed cardiothoracic ICU, anesthesia, and with our palliative care team, we know our fellows will be leaders in clinical care.
Education
The Associate Director of Education has generated an adaptive curriculum that addresses the common needs and unique wants of the PICU fellows. The curriculum is designed as a robust but versatile way to teach core critical care topics to all types of learners.
Didactics include a dynamic and robust curriculum of topics including over 3 protected hours of weekly didactic, research, and case-based conferences.
Simulation training in the program includes:
- Intensive high-fidelity simulation is provided during the first year orientation with longitudinal skill refinement throughout fellowship
- Monthly case-based simulation education curriculum, including the iSIM lab - a 24-hour independent skill lab
- Monthly Point-of-Care ultrasound training
Rotations
The goal of fellow rotations is to experience the wide breadth of pediatric critical care medicine through clinical and research experiences. Fellows are the face of our mission and rotations are geared toward the development of clinical and research skills throughout fellowship.
That’s why our time is equally spent in the clinical and research realms. Partnering with other divisions throughout C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital - including Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Anesthesia, Pediatric Palliative Care – our fellows gain robust experience as leaders of multidisciplinary teams caring for critically ill and injured children. Research time is increased in a graduated fashion across fellowship years, as the clinical experience gained during first year gives way to increasing dedicated time answering questions in a scholarly way.
Our program is special and provides balanced research and clinical experiences, yearly immersive rotations through a Top 10 Cardiac ICU, Dedicated rotations with Pediatric Anesthesia, and separate rotations with our Hospital-Based Palliative Care team.
Research Opportunities
Fellows have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of research including basic science, translational, clinical, and quality improvement projects. In conjunction with the Associate Program Director for Research, fellows identify a primary research mentor who will help guide them in the successful completion of their research project. Primary research mentors have been selected from both within the Division of Critical Care as well as from the larger faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School.
Because of our position within the University of Michigan Medical School, a variety of additional research training opportunities are available to our fellows:
- Center for Bioethics, Social Science, and Medicine (CBSSM) Fellowship Program
- Child Health Evaluation and Research Fellowship
- Community of Medical Educators in Training (CoMet)
- Medical Education Scholars Program (MESP)
- Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) K writing workshop
- University of Michigan Summer Session in Epidemiology
- Department of Pediatrics Fellows College
Fellows are strongly encouraged to present at both local and national conferences and expected to do so in the 3rd year of fellowship. Fellows will be supported to attend conferences by the Division of Critical Care.
- American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
- Annual Children’s National Symposium: ECMO and the Advanced Therapies for Respiratory Failure
- Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)/American Heart Association (AHA)
- American Thoracic Society (ATS)
- Pediatric Academic Society (PAS)
- Pediatric Critical Care Colloquium (PCCC)
- Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)
- SHOCK
Fellows are not required to secure their research funding. However, fellows have received funding to support their training and research through T32 grants or through internal grant awards to the fellow. Examples of support mechanisms are listed below:
- University of Michigan T32 training grants
- Lung Immunopathology
- Research Training in Experimental Immunology
- Training in Developmental Science to Improve Child Health and Well-being
- Molecular and Translational Hematology
- Training Program in Translational Research
- Multidisciplinary Training Program in Lung Disease
- Fostering Innovation Grant (FIG)
- Department of Pediatrics Resident and Fellow Research Grant Program
- Sedation Practices and Outcomes in Pediatric Liver Transplant Patients Utilizing Linked Databases
Fellow: Maria Pliakas, MD (Fellowship: 2022-2025)
Mentors: Stephen Gorga, MD, MSc; Meredith Barrett, MD; Victoria Shakhin, MD, MSc; Erin Carlton, MD, MSc - Association of Serum Lactate with Outcome After Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Secondary Analysis of the Therapeutic Hypothermia After Pediatric Cardiac Arrest (THAPCA) Trial
Fellow: Carly Schmidt, MD (Fellowship: 2022-2025)
Mentors: Erin Carlton, MD, MSc; Joseph Kohne, MD, MSc; Frank Moler, MD, MS; Nathaniel Hunt, MD - Effects of Viral and Host-Related Factors on the Inflammatory Response in Infants and Children with Critical Bronchiolitis
Fellow: Alex Sliwicki, MD (Fellowship: 2022-2025)
Mentors: Heidi Flori, MD, MSc; Mary Dahmer, PhD; Marc Hershenson, MD; Erin Carlton, MD, MSc; Stephen Gorga, MD, MSc - The Association Between Obesity and Outcomes Among Adolescents and Young Adults Supported with Venovenous ECMO for COVID-19 Related Acute Respiratory Failure
Fellow: Cecilia Gallego Suarez, MD (Fellowship: 2021-2024)
Mentors: Ryan Barbaro, MD, MSc; Thomas Valley, MD, MSc; Kanakadurga Singer, MD, MA - Point of Care Ultrasound: Overhauling POCUS from Pediatric Residents to United States Army Medical Corps Medics
Fellow: Danielle Levy, MD (Fellowship: 2021-2024)
Mentors: Erin Carlton, MD, MSc; Deborah Rooney, PhD - Provider Knowledge and Comfort with the Evaluation and Psychopharmacologic Management of Pediatric Delirium
Fellow: Abigail McGinnis, MD (Fellowship: 2021-2024)
Mentors: Nasuh Malas, MD, MPH; Katherine Bates, MD; Jourdan Butchin, PharmD, BCPPS - The Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Outcomes in Pediatric Asthma Hospitalizations
Fellow: Errin Mitchell, MD (Fellowship: 2020-2023)
Mentors: Erica Andrist, MD; Andrew Admon, MD, MPH - Trauma Informed Care in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: If we build it, will they come?
Fellow: Erica Rider, DO (Fellowship: 2020-2023)
Mentors: Margaret Wolff, MD, MHPE; Folafoluwa Odetola, MD, MPH - A Human-Centered Design Approach for Developing the Interface of a Machine Learning System to Predict Pediatric Inpatient Deterioration
Fellow: Michael Stevens, MD (Fellowship: 2020-2023)
Mentors: Rodney Daniels, MD; Sardar Ansari, PhD - Implementing Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines: Improving Compliance with Lactate Measurement in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Fellow: Anisha Mazloom, MD (Fellowship: 2019-2022)
Mentors: Katherine Bates, MD, MSHP; Heidi Flori, MD - The Relationship Between Community Level Income and Morbidity and Mortality in Children with Severe Sepsis
Fellow: Kayla Phelps, MD, MPH (Fellowship: 2019-2022)
Mentor: Erin Carlton, MD, MSc - Multidisciplinary Providers’ Perception of Providing End of Life Care in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Fellow: Lauren Zager, MD (Fellowship: 2019-2022)
Mentor: Janice Firn, PhD, MSW, HEC-C between serum lactate levels and outcomes after pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
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