| Pediatrics Department |
Fellowship Programs
We have eight attending neonatologists, four full-time perinatologists,
and six neonatal fellows. 
We are a designated regional perinatal center where approximately 24,000 live births occur per year. Our fifty bed neonatal intensive care opened in March 1987 and is "state of the art." Approximately 2000 deliveries occur at Loyola, 50% of which are high-risk. We admit approximately 600 patients per year to the neonatal intensive care unit. For the past three years, we have recorded 95-97% survival rates for each two week gestation age group greater than 27 weeks gestation and 78% survival for infants 27 weeks and less. We maintain a highly organized regional network with nine referring community hospitals. We review the neonatal and maternal morbidity and mortality at each regional hospital quarterly. Our region has consistently recorded the lowest mortality rate in Illinois for the last seven consecutive years. Six of our attendings coserve three of our regional community hospitals. Fellows do not rotate to our Level II centers.
Our
program supports additional subspecialists in the following disciplines:
pediatric surgery, endocrinology, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, hematology,
infectious disease, genetics, and nutrition. We also consult with pediatric
surgical subspecialists including cardiovascular surgery, ENT, ophthalmology,
plastic surgery, and hand surgery. We have a very good and close relationship
with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Section of the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology. A rotation in high-risk obstetrics has been jointly developed
to achieve fellowship educational objectives. Perinatal high-risk conferences
with the Department of OB/Gyn occur monthly.
Fellowship
training at Loyola includes 12 months clinical neonatology and 17 months
research, 4 months elective, and 3 months vacation/meeting. The American
Board of Pediatrics requires fellows to produce a research paper as a
part of their training experience. To this end we assign a faculty member
with research experience to mentor each fellow. An individualized Research
Training Program is designed for each fellow. Fellows have the
option to pursue a Masters Degree in a field related to your research.
Most of our three-year fellowship graduates have presented at the Society
for Pediatric Research national meeting; many for two successive years.
Presently, the 50 bed NICU is divided into two clinical teams, each consisting of one attending neonatologist, one fellow, and pediatric residents or nurse practitioners and medical students.
Our weekly conferences provide an ample and varied educational experience, including; Teaching Lecture Series, Grand Rounds, Research Report/Conferences, Journal Club, Perinatal Conferences and Patient Management Conferences. The Teaching Lecture Series provides a thorough review of various perinatal topics presented by attendings and fellows. Pediatric Grand Rounds provides updates of various pediatric topics. The Research Report permits frequent communication of the progress of each ongoing project. Research Conferences presented by fellows and attendings are designed to present results of current projects, discuss new protocols and critique proposed research design. Attendings and fellows present critical reviews of recent articles in our monthly Journal Club. Our Perinatal Conference includes our Maternal-Fetal Medicine colleagues and focuses on perinatal morbidity-mortality and specific topics common to both disciplines. Patient Management Conference offers the opportunity to discuss and review interesting problem cases.
We
have an excellent High-Risk Newborn Follow-Up Clinic which meets two times
a week. Each fellow participates in twice monthly assigned clinics so
they may have follow-up continuity during their three year experience.
The clinic supports a child developmental specialist and pediatric nurse
practitioner.
On
call responsibilities are shared equally among the fellows through all
three years. Average call is 6 per month. Attending coverage is provided
concurrently; attendings and fellows split weekend NICU team rounds. Fellows
are responsible for critical decision-making but provide ongoing reports
to the attending. We are concerned that we not only provide the finest
clinical service available but also that the fellows successfully complete
the neonatology Boards. All of the attendings are Board certified in neonatology.
A
word about our location. We are ten miles southwest of downtown Chicago;
in fact, we can view the city's skyline from the NICU area. Our location
in Maywood allows convenient and comfortable living in many surrounding
suburban communities.
If you wish to apply to our outstanding fellowship, in addition to the application, please request three letters of recommendation. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call us at 708/216-1067.
Sincerely,
Jonathan K. Muraskas, M.D.
Jonathan K. Muraskas, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship
Marc G. Weiss, M.D.
Marc G. Weiss, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Division of Neonatology
(708) 216-1067
Pediatrics
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