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Our Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship

The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship Program provides a dynamic opportunity for fellows to become pediatric hospital medicine physicians who have expertise in providing evidence-based care of pediatric inpatients, coordination of care for those with health issues ranging from the common to the complex, advocacy for services and programs that support the best possible outcomes, and effective communication with primary care and subspecialty providers. Our program will equip fellows to advance the field through scholarly work and research. Graduates of the program will have developed the skills to work in both academic and community-focused PHM programs and be able to participate collaboratively as leaders in the field.
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A Message from Our Director

Welcome! I’m excited that you are considering the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin for the next step in your training and career journey. Our leadership team provides our adult learners with the clinical, scholarly, and professional experiences that help them reach their individual goals. Our innovative curriculum allows for an immersive hospital medicine experience that promotes graduated autonomy. As fellowship director, I am invested in each of our learners, and I am eager to work with our fellows to create their own individualized pathway into the hospital medicine career they desire.

Patrick McCarthy, MD, MME
Fellowship Program Director and Assistant Professor

Fellowship Tour

See the people, places and spaces that make our Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship so special.

Meet our Directors

Patrick McCarthy, MD, MME (Program Director) and Vanessa McFadden, MD, PhD (Research Director) discuss our Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship program.

Meet the Hospitalists, Part 1

Learn about our program, our institution, and Milwaukee from five of our pediatric hospitalists.

Meet the Hospitalists, Part 2

Hear more about our program from two of our med/peds hospitalists. Learn about what it’s like to live and train here in Milwaukee!

As a fellow, you will

  • Develop expertise in caring for hospitalized children with acute conditions, chronic diseases, medical complexity, and diagnostic uncertainty
  • Gain the experience and skills needed to practice independently in academic or community-based practices
  • Complete a scholarly project in areas such as clinical research, education, or quality improvement that will help you advance our specialty and develop your career
  • Build skills in leadership, hospital administration, practice management, and value driven care
  • Work with a talented team in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Wisconsin, which is currently comprised of 42 hospitalists, and 9 advanced practice providers (APPs).

About Our Fellowship

Our two-year Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship is designed to produce academic and clinical leaders within the specialty. Our program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). You will work with dynamic faculty who are actively involved in medical education, quality improvement, and hospital leadership.  
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Application Process and Visa Information

Our 2-year fellowship program is ACGME accredited and begins on July 1 each year. We accept two fellows every year through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Applicants must have completed a US-accredited residency program. Applications from prospective applicants are accepted from July through October via the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). We will access your application and contact you to make interview arrangements.

Complete applications should include the following:

  • ERAS application form
  • At least 3 letters of reference including Program Director letter
  • Medical Student Performance Evaluation/Dean's Letter
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Personal statement
  • MD Applicants: USMLE scores - Steps 1, 2, and 3 or
  • DO Applicants: COMLEX scores – Levels 1, 2 and 3
  • ECFMG certificate for foreign medical school graduates (see visa information below)

Our program currently accepts the following visas:

  • Permanent Resident Visa
  • Visitor Exchange Visa sponsored by ECFMG (J-1)
  • Temporary Professional Workers (H-1B)

For additional visa information please visit MCW’s office of Graduate Medical Education.

Clinical Experience

As a fellow in the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Program you will have the opportunity to gain extensive clinical experience at both Children’s Wisconsin Main Campus and Fox Valley. Patient care activities include extensive inpatient service experience, including rotations in hospital medicine, newborn nursery, pediatric critical care, procedural sedation, special needs/complex care, and palliative medicine. Elective options include transport medicine, emergency medicine, child advocacy and protection, infectious disease, behavioral health, and more!

Research Experience

After successful recruitment, rising fellows will be contacted to identify an area of interest, such as clinical research, quality improvement/safety, or educational scholarship. We will work with you to connect you with a faculty mentor/coach to help you select a project and support you throughout your fellowship so you can meet the ACGME requirements for scholarly productivity.  The Joint Fellowship Curriculum and Hospital Medicine Fellows’ Curriculum will help fellows develop skills in study design and research methodology, grant writing, statistical analysis, and other fundamentals.

Academic Curriculum

The curriculum includes:

  • Inpatient hospital medicine rotations at Children’s Wisconsin. Fellows will rotate on of our academic hospitalist inpatient services and gain experience managing common pediatric conditions, rare diseases, and medically complex children. The inpatient experience will include time working on the resident service, the APP team, and night/call shifts. Triage, complex care coordination, and surgical co-management will be emphasized throughout the rotations. Bedside and didactic teaching and supervision of medical students, residents, APPs, NP students, and PA students will occur during these rotations.
  • Community hospital medicine rotations. Fellows will rotate at Children’s Wisconsin Fox Valley, gaining experience with providing care outside of an academic center. Emphasis will be placed on evidence-based community practice, triage and level-of-care decisions, and delivery experience.
  • Required key clinical rotations. Fellows will rotate though other clinical services in the Department of Pediatrics to gain essential experiences and skill that are central to a career in hospital medicine. Rotations will include newborn nursery, special needs/complex care, sedation, palliative care, PICU, and others.
  • Elective rotations. Fellows will have the opportunity to select clinical and non-clinical electives that align with their individual interests and career goals.
  • Longitudinal experiences. Throughout fellowship, teaching and medical education, leadership/administration, quality-improvement, co-management, and other areas will be built upon as part of rotations and clinical experiences.
  • Research and scholarly activities. Fellows will have significant time dedicated to a research/scholarly project, with the expectation of a scholarly product by the end of fellowship. We will work with you to identify a project and mentorship early in fellowship and partner with you to meet this goal.
  • PHM fellows’ conference series. A fellows-centered didactic curriculum will complement the clinical and other educational experiences to ensure a well-rounded educational experience.

See the clinical schedule and elective offerings

Pediatric Joint Fellowship Curriculum
The Joint Fellowship Curriculum (JFC) at the Medical College of Wisconsin is a series of longitudinal educational experiences designed to cover topics required for all pediatric fellows. While specialty-specific education is covered within each section, the JFC endeavors to cover the remainder of topics that are common to all fellowship trainees. Fellows not only gain insight on these topics from campus-wide experts, but also do so in a collaborative learning environment with their same level fellow peers from across the pediatric enterprise. 

Learn More

A Day in the Life of a Fellow
  • While on a hospital medicine team, you will be responsible for a team of patients, leading rounds that includes medical students, residents, APPs and/or APP students, while under the supervision (direct and indirect) of a PHM faculty member.

  • Assignments to the various coverage roles will include pager triage, staffing patients during times of daily peak volume, and coordinating care during handoffs.

  • During selected rotations, call will include some overnight hospitalist inpatient shifts or night call in the PICU.

  • Clinical experiences in other required rotations will find you rounding with board certified/eligible specialists and becoming a part of their team for 2 weeks.

  • Research blocks will allow you to focus on your research topic either at the hospital or off site. Regularly scheduled meetings with your mentorship team will ensure that you stay on target.

Fellow Alumni

Leann Madion, MD
Staff Hospitalist
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital
Knoxville, TN

Riley Boland, MD
Clinical Associate
Department of Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Comer Children’s Hospital
Chicago, IL 

Fellow Accomplishments

Riley Boland

Scholarly Project: Creation of a Needs-Focused Supplemental Teaching Didactic for the Pediatric Clerkship

QI Projects:

  • REVISE II
  • Discharge Delay Prevention
  • Better Antibiotic Selection in Children (BASiC)
  • Pediatric Clerkship Needs Assessment

Publications and Presentations:

  • Boland R, Lauck S. Creation of a Needs-Focused Supplemental Teaching Didactic for the Pediatric Clerkship. University of Southern California Innovations in Medical Education Conference. Poster Session. 2022, Feb. Los Angeles, California
  • Boland RS, Kelly MM. Characteristic Differences in Hospitalized Children with Complicated and Community-Acquired Pneumonia. AAP News. February 2021.

Leann Madion

Scholarly Project: Overweight Infants Hospitalized with Bronchiolitis at Risk for More Severe Disease

QI Project:
AAP Bronchiolitis Workgroup

Supplemental Training: Kern Kinetic 3 Excellence in Teaching Program

Leadership: Children’s Wisconsin Patient Experience Committee Representative

Publications and Presentations:

  • Madion L. Overweight infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis at risk for more severe disease. American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition. Virtual. Oct 8-11, 2021.
  • Madion L, Rogers, A. A Virtual Solution to Teaching Communication Skills to Pediatric Residents. Pediatric Academic Society. Poster Presentation. Apr 21-25, 2022.
    Swartz S. Madion L, Corbin B. Tired of Missing the Tap? Using Ultrasound to Improve Lumbar Puncture Success. Pediatric Academic Society. Workshop Facilitator. Apr 21-25, 2022.

Bethany Corbin

Scholarly Project: Needs Assessment of Children with Medical Complexity to Identify Barriers for Transitional Care in the Inpatient Setting

QI Project: Antibiotic De-sensitization and de-escalation of low risk Penicillin Allergies

Supplemental Training: Kern Kinetic3 Medical Educator program

Publications and Presentations:

  • Swartz S, Madion L, Corbin B, Tired of Missing the Tap? Using Ultrasound to Improve Lumbar Puncture Success. Pediatric Academic Society Conference 2022. Denver, CO. Workshop Facilitator. Apr 21-25, 2022.
  • Corbin B, McCarthy P. Crushing Back Pain with a Crushing Diagnosis. Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference 2022. Orlando, FL. Clinical Conundrum Poster Presentation. July 2022.

Lauren Titus

Scholarly Project:
Creating a Curriculum of LGBTQ+ Liberation and Inclusion for Pediatric Hospital Medicine Providers Informed by Qualitative Research with LGBTQ+ Youth

QI Project: Impact of implicit bias on racial disparities in patient & family interactions with hospital security

Supplemental Training: Kern Kinetic3 Medical Educator Research Track

Publications and Presentations:

  • Titus L, Stephany A, Porada K, McFadden V. Intent, Substance, and Care: Characteristics of Adolescent Ingestion Hospitalizations. Hosp Pediatr 2021 02;11(2):160-166 PMID: 33468552 01/21/2021.
  • Hall JM, Havens PL, Mitchell EA, De Vela GN, Titus LL, Dasgupta M, Simpson PM, Kehl SC, Willoughby RE, Henrickson KJ, Mitchell ML, Huppler AR, Chusid MJ. Blastomycosis in 64 Wisconsin Children: Unanticipated Infection Risk and Severity in Urban Residents. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2021 09 01;40(9):802-807 PMID: 33990518 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85112752993 05/16/2021.
  • Christianson K, Kalinowski A, Bauer S, Liu Y, Titus L, Havas M, Lynch K, Rogers A. Using Quality Improvement Methodology to Increase Communication of Discharge Criteria on Rounds. Hosp Pediatr 2022 02 01;12(2):156-164 PMID: 34988584 01/07/2022.
  • Titus L. That “Gnawing” Feeling that You’re Missing Something: A Case of Transaminitis Initially Attributed to an Ingestion. Accepted for poster presentation at PHM 2022.
  • Titus L. Hints Gleaned from the Spleen: An Unusual Cause of Neonatal Sepsis. Accepted for oral presentation at PHM 2022.
Our Faculty
Our talented faculty members are excited to assist you throughout your fellowship.

Meet our faculty

Our Institutions

About the Medical College of Wisconsin

With a history dating back to 1893, the Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,400 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Central Wisconsin. MCW’s School of Pharmacy opened in 2017. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In the last ten years, faculty received more than $1.5 billion in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,100 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,600 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 4.0 million patients annually.

About Children’s Wisconsin

Children’s Wisconsin is the region’s only independent health care system dedicated solely to the health and well-being of children. The hospital, with locations in Milwaukee and Neenah, Wisconsin, is recognized as one of the leading pediatric health care centers in the United States. It is ranked in nine specialty areas in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019-20 Best Children’s Hospitals report. Children’s provides primary care, specialty care, urgent care, emergency care, community health services, foster and adoption services, child and family counseling, child advocacy services and family resource centers. In 2019, Children’s invested more than $130 million in the community to improve the health status of children through medical care, advocacy, education and pediatric medical research. Children’s achieves its mission in part through donations from individuals, corporations and foundations and is proud to be a member of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Diversity and Inclusion

At MCW and within the Department of Pediatrics, we have several programs and resources focused on fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. Our departmental and institutional focus is confronting negative perceptions and welcoming our community. Below is just a sampling of the efforts across our institutions to embed the principles of diversity and inclusion into our culture.

  • DOP Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council | Our Diversity Council, led by Dr. Mike Levas, the DOP Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion, and comprised of faculty, staff, administration, and trainees, is focused on connecting with partners across our system and within the community to ensure the DOP is a diverse, equitable and inclusive employer.
  • DOP Fellowship and Residency Diversity and Inclusion Committees | In a city filled with its own diversity and rich cultural history, our fellows and residents recognize the importance of addressing diversity, health equity, and inclusion within our programs. As such, the program is proud to recognize the presence and work of its Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
  • DOP Unconscious Bias Training | The AAMC has partnered with Cook Ross, Inc., a leading consulting firm, to create training focused on the science behind unconscious bias to help academic medical staff and faculty mitigate disparities. Seven members of our team have earned a certification as unconscious bias trainers through Cook Ross. These trainers have translated what they’ve learned into a two-hour training for our faculty and staff. By learning how to identify and confront unconscious bias, it is possible to mitigate the impact and promote respect for all groups.
  • Trauma-Informed Workplace Training | This committee has undertaken actions including a department-wide survey and the creation of four online training modules sharing the principles of trauma-informed approach and how to recognize signs and symptoms of trauma in ourselves and others. This group started as part of Fostering Futures, a state-wide initiative aimed at infusing a trauma-informed approach into all the systems and organizations that touch the lives of Wisconsin citizens with the goal of expanding across the state to make Wisconsin the first trauma-informed state in the nation.
  • Office of Diversity and Inclusion | Established in March 2016, the MCW Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) partners within MCW and with community partners to foster and drive inclusion excellence as an effective, empowering enabler of MCW mission and strategic goals.
  • Spring Festival of Cultures | The annual Spring Festival of Cultures encourages an increased awareness and celebration of the visible and non-visible identities among our MCW community. This three-day event is an opportunity to promote the fostering of diversity, inclusion and unity at MCW.
  • President’s Diversity and Inclusion Award | MCW’s President's Diversity and Inclusion Award recognizes the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, residents, trainees, and community members in contributing to diversity and inclusion through exemplary leadership.
  • Institute of Health and Equity | The Institute for Health & Equity is focused on researching the root causes of health disparities in our communities, and advancing the best ideas to foster health equity throughout the world. We target populations with abnormally high rates of disease and injury – urban and rural alike – and then we find out why. Partnering with community health collaborators who live and work closest to the most vulnerable populations, we are making an impact on reducing those disparities, one community at a time.
  • GMF-MCW Partnership | Through their overall partnership, MCW and GMF will bring complementary expertise on a range of strategies to invest in the health, equity and economic well-being of people across Milwaukee, beginning with the neighborhoods adjacent to the new development. Guided by community priorities and data, the GMF-MCW Partnership will be a catalyst for additional investment and community impact. Together, the partners will:
    • Engage resident and community partnerships
    • Improve social determinants of health
    • Catalyze change that leverages resources and investment

Learn More about MCW's Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Living & Training in Milwaukee

Milwaukee is one of the Midwest’s best-kept secrets and a prime location for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s main campus. A one-of-a-kind city with a vibrant and diverse culture, this charming, yet metropolitan must-see is just 90 minutes north of Chicago and nestled on the coast of Lake Michigan. Whether you’re catching a show at Summerfest, the world’s largest music festival, immersing yourself in the old world charm of the Historic Third Ward or taking in the sights and sounds of one of the many cafés, beer gardens or restaurants that line the city’s riverbank and shoreline, Milwaukee never disappoints. Find out why MCW students, faculty and employees take pride in calling Milwaukee home.

Learn about housing and rental options.

More about Milwaukee

Benefits, Conditions and Terms of Employment
Fellows are employed by the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals (MCWAH).

See MCWAH Benefits, Conditions & Terms of Employment for information regarding vacations, leaves, insurance, stipends and professional liability.

More information

Eligibility

Eligible candidates must have completed an ACGME-accredited Pediatric residency and be board-eligible in pediatrics at the start of fellowship training. Candidates must be able to be licensed in the State of Wisconsin.

Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals does accept visas, as per their policy. Please see the MCWAH visa information site for further details.

I love the supportive and innovative nature of MCW. Our hospital medicine division is full of wonderful colleagues who care about our individual goals, career paths, and accomplishments throughout the fellowship years. Our program leadership goes the extra mile to help create and provide the fellowship resources and activities we need to be as successful as possible. I chose MCW for fellowship because they seemed like a fun group of people that would prioritize my needs, and I was right!

A current fellow

Our Team

Patrick McCarthy, MD, MME

Patrick McCarthy 2018

Program Director

Brandon Palmer, MD

Brandon Palmer

Associate Program Director

Vanessa McFadden, MD, PhD

Vanessa McFadden, MD, PhD

Research Director

 

Judy Borchardt

Judy Borchardt

Division Program Associate

Maggie Reichertz

Reichertz Maggie Professional Portrait

Program Coordinator

 

 

Our Second Year Fellows (2021-23)

Bethany Corbin, MD

Corbin Bethany

Medical School: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Residency: University of Rochester Medical Center

Lauren Titus, MD

Lauren Titus

Medical School: Medical College of Georgia
Residency: Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals

 

 

Our First Year Fellows (2022-24)

Christina Metcalf McKinney, MD

Christina Metcalf McKinney

Medical School: University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Residency: University of Louisville College of Medicine

Danielle Owerko, MD

Danielle Owerko 

Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine
Residency: Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals

   

Contact Us

Thank you for your interest in our program. We look forward to connecting with you!

Patrick J. McCarthy, MD, MME

Program Director

Maggie Reichertz

Program Coordinator