The Division of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine trains fellows to become both excellent clinicians and academic neonatologists. The division offers a three-year Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program accredited by the Residency Review Committee for Pediatrics. The program accepts two to three fellows each year. Fellows gain a broad range of clinical experience at the affiliated hospitals of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University.  The NICU of Children's Memorial Hospital (CMH) is located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and has more than 550 annual admissions. The Prentice Pavilion of Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in downtown Chicago has more than 1,000 annual admissions. Fourteen full-time academic neonatologists direct patient care and provide education at Childrens Memorial and NMH. These NICUs provide training for Northwestern pediatric residents, who receive experience in neonatology as a component of their residency program. Childrens Memorial NICU also features neonatal nurse practitioners to assist with patient care of critically-ill newborn infants.
Overall, the McGaw Center hospitals serve a wide referral area and a variety of socioeconomic groups. All infants at the hospital are outborn and Children’s Memorial provides all aspects of medical and surgical neonatal intensive care. The hospital receives referrals for multiple indications including cardiac, surgical, and liver failure from the Chicago metropolitan area and Illinois and other states. The NICU is also a regional ECMO referral center. NMH has one of the busiest delivery services in the nation with an active Maternal Fetal Medicine service and fellowship program. The Childrens Memorial and NMH sites participate in national collaborative neonatal clinical trials as well as are involved in the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Service. High-risk obstetrics units associated with Northwestern Memorial provide experience in managing high-risk maternity patients. Pediatric residents and neonatal-perinatal fellows attend high-risk deliveries. Neonatal-perinatal fellows attend weekly conferences with perinatologists and learn to evaluate high-risk obstetrical situations prenatally. A group of nine board-certified maternal-fetal specialists direct the obstetrics units. At NMH, training is enhanced through close affiliation with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program.
Twenty-four months of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program consist of performing clinical or basic research studies in neonatology or developmental biology. Neonatologists and full-time PhD investigators supervise these studies. Fellows have many resources of the University and the medical school at their disposal, though one neonatologist serves as a central mentor during the three years of the program. The research years of the neonatal-perinatal fellowship are key to developing the skills needed for a career in academic neonatology and are designed to teach fellows the fundamentals of clinical or basic research in neonatal-perinatal medicine or developmental biology. Fellows will have 24 research months to design, execute, present, and publish an original research project. Fellows should choose a basic science or clinical investigator’s track at the time of accepting a fellowship with the division. Current research interests of the Division of Neonatology include persistent pulmonary hypertension and vascular biology, necrotizing enterocolitis, neurodevelopmental outcomes of high-risk infants, ethnic disparities in neonatal mortality, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. For many of these areas, both basic science and clinical research projects are ongoing. Fellows are released from service duties to attend mandatory Wednesday afternoon conferences. These conferences rotate between the three hospital sites and consist of divisional academic meetings or Maternal Fetal Medicine conference followed by core curriculum or research conference. Many optional conferences are also available through the Department of Pediatrics and the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Raye-Ann deRegnier, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics E-mail: r-deregnier@northwestern.edu
For more information or an application packet, contact Fellowship Director Raye-Ann deRegnier, MD, Division of Neonatology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Children’s Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children’s Plaza, Box 45, Chicago, Illinois 60614-3394, 773/880-4142; fax 773/880-3061 or visit the Division of Neonatology Web site.
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