Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
Overview and Goals
The mission of the ACGME-accredited Anesthesia Critical Care Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is to train physicians in the art and science of critical care medicine, allowing them to become compassionate and thoughtful leaders who can contribute to academic, clinical and educational achievements in our field. Our program seeks to build a strong clinical core in our trainees through broad exposure to different facets of intensive care and a comprehensive didactic program. We pride ourselves on constantly evolving our program to expand training and opportunities for our fellows, including in research, quality improvement and education.
Critical Care Fellows
Our fellowship goals include:
- Clinical training focused on the management of a broad and complex critically ill patient population in a quaternary care medical center
- Enhanced fellow education by exposure to a wide range of multidisciplinary faculty specialists, both in and outside of the ICUs
- Early career development for our trainees, including mentoring in the areas of academic investigation, administration, quality improvement and education
- Development of an inclusive program that contributes to a representative and balanced critical care workforce by training a diverse group of fellows
Eligibility/How to Apply/Contact Information
The Anesthesia Critical Care Medicine Fellowship is an ACGME-accredited fellowship. All qualified applicants must be enrolled in or have completed an ACGME certified residency program or its equivalent.
We participate in the San Francisco Match that is sponsored by the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA). We also welcome applicants pursuing an Emergency Medicine/Critical Care Pathway and those applicants interested in pursuing a dual fellowship in Critical Care Medicine and Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesia.
For applicants applying for the 2 year Dual Adult Cardiothoracic and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship:
- Complete an application for both Adult Cardiothoracic Fellowship and Critical Care Medicine through the San Francisco Match.
- Complete this supplementary form and email it to the program coordinator.
Program Director
Ameeka Pannu MD
Email Ameeka
Fellowship Coordinator
Rotations and Schedules
Our fellows rotate through our core intensive care units (ICUs) for 9 months of the year. This includes our Trauma-Surgical ICU, Surgical ICU, Cardiovascular ICU and Neurosciences ICU. They also complete rotations in a combined med-surg unit, the Finard ICU and on night float. These rotations offer an exposure to a wide range of pathology, ranging from trauma and intracerebral pathology to the critically ill postoperative patient and the patient on mechanical circulatory support. In the units, the fellows, along with the attendings, lead a multidisciplinary team including dedicated housestaff and advanced practice providers.
The balance of the year consists of elective time. The fellows rotate with our colleagues in other departments to enhance their understanding of specialty practice, including a total of four weeks on a transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) rotation. Popular electives include Blood Bank, Infectious Diseases, Nephrology and Interventional Pulmonology. Fellows also use elective time to complete research and education projects.
Curriculum and Didactics
Our didactic program is designed to both give our fellows a strong foundation in core critical care medicine concepts and provide a deeper understanding of organ-specific disease. Our standing didactics include:
- Weekly ultrasound/echo conference, including lecture, case review and hands-on learning
- Weekly lecture, taught by faculty from various departments at BIDMC
- Weekly journal club, with fellow and faculty participation
- Biweekly Morbidity and Mortality Conference
- Combined didactics with the Cardiothoracic Anesthesia fellowship, including echocardiography teaching
- Dedicated neurocritical care didactics
Curriculum highlights include:
- Dedicated teaching around mechanical circulatory support (MCS) and extracorporeal life support
- Year-long ultrasound curriculum
- Lectures and workshops led by both core critical care faculty and faculty from other departments
- Robust weekly journal club covering both landmark and contemporary literature
- Continuous evaluation and expansion of the fellowship didactic program
Research and Other Opportunities
The faculty of the Division of Critical Care is involved in Research that spans basic science to clinical outcomes. Our fellows are encouraged to participate in clinical research that interests them, and their work is regularly published and presented at national conferences. Fellows are also involved in other scholarly projects, such as case reports and book chapters.
We also focus on the fellow's role as an educator. As such, our fellows teach medical students and residents at the bedside, at our weekly resident conferences, and during our structured courses.
All fellows are active participants on interdisciplinary committees that seek to improve the quality of care in our ICUs. In addition, our fellows have the opportunity to learn about the administration and management of a critical care unit through both observation and participation on administrative and executive committees.