Pediatric Rehabilitation Fellowship

Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital sign

The Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine offers a two-year Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Blythedale Children’s Hospital, in Valhalla, NY.

The Fellowship is under the direction of Hana Azizi, MD, assistant professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the director of pediatric physical medicine and Rehabilitation at Blythedale Children’s Hospital. The clinical curriculum includes inpatient care, acute hospital consultation, outpatient care, and training in procedures for spasticity management.

The fellowship is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) since 2017, and graduates are eligible to sit for the certification in this specialty offered by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).

Applicants for the Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship must be in their final year of residency or have completed their residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Clinical Sites

Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) is one of the nation’s premier children’s hospitals. It is a 250-bed tertiary care hospital offering a full array of specialized services and facilities.

Blythedale Children’s Hospital is a 95-bed specialty children’s hospital dedicated to children with complex medical illnesses and rehabilitation conditions. Blythedale is one of only 19 pediatric specialty hospitals in the United States and has the combined staff, expertise, and resources (including the largest pediatric therapy department in New York State) to care for medically complex children. Blythedale has the only post-acute Acquired Brain Injury Program in NY state, a post-NICU/PICU program, and both a K-12 public school district and a 24-bed, long-term care facility on site. Blythedale is also home to the Center for Adaptive Equipment.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the fellow will receive in-depth exposure to unique rehabilitation issues facing children undergoing cancer treatment, including functional sequelae related to cancer itself, different chemotherapeutic agents, and surgical and radiation treatments. The fellow will learn to evaluate, diagnose, and treat specific musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions in children with leukemia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, sarcoma, brain tumor, retinoblastoma, post-bone marrow transplant, and others.

Clinical Education

Our Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship provides trainees with a well-rounded clinical experience in outpatient care and procedures (at NYPH/CUIMC and MSKCC), hospital consultation (at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NYPH/CUIMC and MSKCC), and in the inpatient and day hospital setting (at Blythedale Children’s Hospital). The fellow will participate in interdisciplinary inpatient and outpatient clinics during their training and research activities, supervised by attending pediatric rehabilitation medicine faculty members. Across the various clinical sites, the rotation structure is as follows:

  • Columbia outpatient/consultations
  • MSKCC outpatient/consultations
  • Blythedale inpatient
  • Blythedale outpatient/consultations
  • Research
  • Subspecialty rotations interspersed and flexible including (but are not limited to): orthopedic surgery, urology, movement disorder neurology, developmental pediatrics, genetics, pediatric hematology/oncology, palliative care, PICU, rheumatology
  • Continuity clinic one afternoon per month throughout the fellowship

The fellow will learn to provide outpatient and inpatient care for children and adolescents with acquired and congenital conditions and injuries, including:

  • Cerebral palsy across the lifespan
  • Neuromuscular diseases
  • Spina bifida
  • Pediatric limb deficiency
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Acquired brain injury
  • CNS and other malignancies
  • Chronic pain syndromes
  • Musculoskeletal disorders

Procedural Training

Hypertonia management using ultrasound and nerve stimulator guidance includes:

  • Botulinum toxin injections to salivary glands and hypertonic muscles
  • Phenol and ethanol nerve blocks
  • Intrathecal baclofen pump management

Didactics

There are many didactic opportunities available to the fellow, including:

  • Outpatient Rotations
    • Columbia weekly US workshops, in which the fellow is encouraged to teach residents
    • Weekly virtual, multidisciplinary, three-dimensional gait lab analysis conference held in conjunction with the Hospital for Special Surgery’s Orthopedics Department with in-depth discussion and education that includes treatment planning
  • Inpatient Rotations
    • Formal weekly didactic lecture series at MSKCC and Blythedale
  • Virtual Programming
    • Monthly national movement disorder case discussions held in conjunction with neurology covering challenging cases of movement disorders
    • Monthly multidisciplinary case conference meetings with orthopedics, neurology and primary care through the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center
    • Weekly orthopedic tumor boards at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to discuss pathology, radiology, and treatment plans for orthopedic cancers
    • Fellow monthly Board Review
    • Fellow monthly Journal Club
    • Departmental Grand Rounds including Department of Rehabilitation, Department of Pediatrics, Child Neurology, and Pediatric Orthopedics
    • Dedicated time to attend lectures through The Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center, The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) eAcademy, The Cerebral Palsy Research Network, and the AAPM&R PRM Lecture Series

Research Requirement

The fellow receives 20 percent protected research time throughout the fellowship with the goal of skillful development of IRB preparation, study design, and methodology and publication.

Quality Improvement Project

The fellow is required to carry out a Quality Improvement (QI) Project with attending supervision.

Our Faculty

Current Fellows

  • Jessica Ace, DO; PGY-6
  • Vera Tsetlina, MD; PGY-5

Alumni

  • Amy Tenaglia, MD
    Attending, CUIMC
  • Ray Stanford, DO
    Attending, Phoenix Children's Hospital
  • Jared Levin, MD
    Attending, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
  • Hannah A. Shoval, MD
    Attending, Children’s Specialized New Jersey
  • Deborah Cassidy, DO
    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Contact

For more information, please contact:

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Harkness Pavilion 1-168
180 Fort Washington Avenue
New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212-305-8592
Fax: 212-305-4258