Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program

The Department of Anesthesiology has two ACGME-approved critical care fellowship positions. One position is a traditional, 1-year critical care training pathway, while the other is a combined 2-year NIH research and clinical pathway. Given our current volume in the 189 beds in 10 adult intensive care units at the University of Maryland, our critical care fellows have ample opportunity to gain experience in managing the most complex and interesting patients in the intensive care unit. Each critical care fellow will participate in a total of 9 months in the various intensive care units, with the remainder 3 months on elective rotations such as echocardiography, infectious disease, cardiology, nephrology, palliative care, and liver transplant anesthesia.

We also have a unique partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One of our critical care fellowship positions is a dedicated 2-year research pathway. During the first year, the fellow will spend 8 months on clinical rotations in the ICUs at the NIH Clinical Center, while the other 4 months are spent in the ICUs at UMMC. The second year of fellowship is dedicated to conducting clinical research with a mentor at the NIH. Clinical and laboratory research are available in the center’s research laboratories, where active research programs involve animal models, clinical trials, and genomics/proteomics facilities. Fellows are encouraged to select from among these resources to develop research studies relevant to critical care medicine.

All critical care fellows are allotted ample time to pursue scholarly activities and the faculty are highly supportive of these endeavors. The fellows have a professional development/education fund that can be used to attend meetings or to purchase educational materials.

The Shock, Trauma, and Anesthesiology Research organized research center (STAR-ORC) is a world-class, multi-disciplinary research and educational center focusing on neurological injuries, critical care, organ support, resuscitation, surgical outcomes, and injury prevention. It serves as the research umbrella for the Department of Anesthesiology and the Program in Trauma. Each fellow will have an assigned mentor who is a member of the Critical Care Anesthesiology faculty. The fellows will have a defined project and will be expected to submit findings for presentation at grand rounds or at a national meeting, typically the annual Society of Critical Care Medicine or Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists meeting. Areas of active investigation in the division include coagulation and hemostasis, end points of resuscitation, aeromedical critical care, and rescue therapy for vasoplegic shock.

Our fellows gain competence in surface TTE training with one month of dedicated ECHO time at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center with a sonographer and an attending intensivist. During this month, fellows gain competence in TTE by performing and interpreting all of the ECHOs requested by the intensive care units. A uniquely formulated quantitative echocardiogram, the ‌focused rapid echocardiographic examination (FREE), was pioneered at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center that is a hybrid of an anatomic structural assessment and a rapid point-of-care cardiac echo. It is used as the primary tool to assess the hemodynamic status of all patients in the intensive care units at our trauma center. During the fellowship, our fellows will perform well over the required number of TTE examinations for the Critical Care Echocardiography examination that will be offered by the National Board of Echocardiography starting in 2019. Previous fellows have also attained basic perioperative TEE certification through dedicated elective time on a TEE month.

To learn more about our focused rapid echocardiographic examination:
Bridging the Gap - Hybrid Cardiac ECHO in the Critically Ill

The didactic program includes a weekly lecture series (see sample schedule), monthly journal clubs, morbidity and mortality conferences, and simulation. In addition, the fellow attends daily lunchtime lecture series developed for critical care fellows of all specialties (surgical/trauma critical care, pulmonary critical care, and neuro critical care). We invite world class experts and researchers in critical care medicine to give these lectures, and many of these lectures are recorded and posted on the University of Maryland Critical Care Project website. ‌

University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC)

The University of Maryland Medical Center is a major tertiary facility with approximately 900 beds. The Medical Center cares for more than 30,000 inpatients and 500,000 outpatients each year. There are multiple critical care units including the Surgical ICU (SICU), Medical ICU (MICU), Coronary Care Unit (CCU), Cardiac Surgery ICU (CSICU), and Neurological ICU, which comprise the 124 critical care beds. There are 39 operating rooms and 48 anesthetizing locations throughout the hospital. Several specialty units are located within the hospital, including the Solid Organ Transplant Unit and the Greenbaum Cancer Center.

R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center (STC)

Seeing over 7,600 critically injured patients each year, the newly built, 140,000 square foot Shock Trauma Tower is adjacent to UMMC and houses 9 floors of patient care space in 64 private ICU rooms, 10 dedicated operating rooms, 18 new PACU bays, and a new simulation center. An additional helipad was built to accommodate the heaviest of helicopters (i.e. The President of the United States’ Marine One), increasing the total capacity of the helipad to 4 helicopters at any given time. Referrals for admission come from Maryland and its surrounding states. Adjacent to the operating room is the world-renowned Trauma Resuscitation Unit (TRU), a 26 bed bay that serves as the receiving area for all trauma patients at the University of Maryland and is run in collaboration with the Department of Surgery and Department of Anesthesiology. In addition, the Critical Care Resuscitation Unit (CCRU) is an innovative state-of-the-art 6-bed receiving area that allows critically ill inter-facility transport patients to receive critical care while awaiting an ICU bed. The CCRU sees over 1,900 patients annually with neurosurgical, neurological, vascular, cardiac, and medical emergencies. The Lung Rescue Unit (LRU) is another innovative 6-bed unit that provides ECMO services for patients in acute cardiac or respiratory failure outside of the CSICU. In addition, fellows gain vast clinical experience through the NeuroTrauma, Multi-Trauma, and Select-Trauma Critical Care Units.‌

Core Rotations

• 4 months, Surgical ICU (SICU, University of Maryland Medical Center)
• 1 month, Neurological ICU (University of Maryland Medical Center)
• 1 month, Neuro Trauma ICU (R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center)
• 1 month, Multi Trauma ICU (R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center)
• 1 month, Cardiac Surgery ICU (CSICU, University of Maryland Medical Center)
• 1 month, Medical ICU (MICU, University of Maryland Medical Center)
• 3 months, Elective rotations

Elective Rotations

• Critical Care radiology and neuroradiology
• Critical Care transthoracic and/or transesophageal echocardiography
• Infectious Diseases
• Nephrology
• Cardiology
• Palliative Care
• Liver transplant and/or Trauma anesthesiology
• Lung Rescue Unit (ECMO)
• Research

‌2009
Rom Stevens, MD
Professor
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences
Chicago, IL

2010
Elizabeth Riccobono, DO
Staff Anesthesiologist
AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center
Atlantic City, NJ

2011
Christopher Franklin, MD
Intensivist
Navicent Health
Kathleen, Georgia

2012
Ilene Lewis, MD
Assistant Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI

2013
Tara Paterson, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Olive View – UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

2014
Kevin Blaine, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Los Angeles, CA

2014
Jessica Hobbs, MD
Staff Anesthesiologist
Carroll Hospital
Westminster, MD

2015
Justin Richards, MD
Assistant Professor
R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

2016
Frederick Powell, MD
Staff Anesthesiologist
Colquitt Regional Medical Center
Moultrie, GA

2017
Zackary Chancer, MD
Assisant Professor
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

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