Clinical Observership and Research Training Program in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Medicine

Training Program Goals

The overarching goal of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Clinical Observership and Research Training Program in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Medicine program is to train the next generation of clinician-scientists through provision of extensive and intensive training. The program is tuition-based, to be paid by the sponsoring institution.

Graduates of the program will be exposed to the cognitive knowledge, interpersonal skills, professional attitudes, and practical experiences required for their advance training. Trainee experiences will be focused on educational trainings and the development of quality improvement initiatives that are influenced by their exposure in the intensive care units and emergency department. We aim to graduate trainees that will have gained exposure to the clinical skills and developed research skills that will allow them to ultimately advance the practice of emergency medicine and critical care medicine to be applied towards quality improvements that will improve outcomes for patients in their home institutions.

The department offices are located on the hospital campus in the Neville House building at 10 Vining Street in Boston.

Please thoroughly review the following pages pertaining to the institutional criteria to qualify for this training program:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How long is your training program?

A: The training program is generally 12 months in length, and less than 6 months requests are not offered.

Q: How much is the tuition for your training program?

A: The tuition for the training program is $10,000 per month, and advance deposit will be required before training begins.

Important Offices and Contact Information

Peter Hou, MD
Program Director
Neville House, 304-R
phou@bwh.harvard.edu

Raghu Seethala, MD
Division Chief, Emergency Critical Care Medicine
Neville House, 304-R
rseethala@bwh.harvard.edu

Adrienne Lepardo, Emergency Critical Care Medicine Program Manager
Neville House, 304
alepardo@bwh.harvard.edu

Amanda Downing, Emergency Critical Care Medicine Program Coordinator
Neville House, 304
adowning@bwh.harvard.edu

Curriculum Assignments

Over the course of the training program, there will be a series of assignments to be completed. The 3 core assignments are listed below. Additional instruction will be provided on the requirements of each.

  1. Overview of your home hospital Emergency Department and overlap with critical care (2-3 pages)
  2. Quality improvement project
    1. Develop a clinical operations quality improvement project to be applied at home institution
  3. End of Project Presentation (15-20 minutes)
    1. Lessons Learned
    2. Proposed quality improvement process for home institution
    3. Research project summary and findings

Administrative Meetings

Trainees will also be expected to participate in experiential learning through involvement in process improvement initiatives, ongoing quality assessment activities, and participation in regularly scheduled departmental administrative meetings.

Trainees will be asked to describe their educational interests and topics they wish to learn more about during the training program. The Program Directors will guide them in finding other faculty or established administrative meetings that encompass those interests. Meeting attendance will be scheduled through the program coordinator.

Trainees are required to attend various departmental administrative meetings. These include, but are not limited to:

  • EM Faculty Meeting
  • Faculty Ultrasound / Research / Development meetings
  • ED Operations Committee Meeting
  • Clinical Oversight Group (COG) Meeting
  • Brigham Critical Care Research Collaborative and Consortium Meeting (Quarterly)
  • Division of Critical Care Medicine Meeting (Bi-Monthly)

Clinical Observation

Trainees are expected to participate in observational shifts in the ED on a regular basis to understand the clinical and operational context of the administrative work that is the focus of the training program. Trainees will spend time observing all the different personnel groups (physicians, nurses, PAs, other allied health professionals) to get a holistic view.

Clinical observation shifts will be scheduled by the program coordinator. Shifts will be scheduled with approval from the Clinical Observation Coordinator, to ensure they do not impact other clinical mentoring students. Trainees will not have direct patient contact as primary clinical providers.

Fellows are expected to participate in daily observation in the emergency department and critical care units. Critical care observation will occur in the medical and surgical intensive care units and will include attendance of daily rounds Monday through Friday. There are many critical care units at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and trainees will spend time observing in each one. Emergency Department observation will occur in the BWH emergency department. Timelines presented below are general, and could be tailored to a fellow’s specific area of interest.

  • BWH Surgical Intensive Care Units – 2 months
  • BWH Thoracic ICU – 2 months
  • BWH Cardiovascular ICUs – 2 months
  • BWH Neurological ICUs – 2 months
  • BWH Medical ICUs – 2 months
  • BWH Emergency Department – 2 months

While observing in the care units, trainees will be under the close guidance and supervision of an assigned attending emergency medicine or critical care physician. The trainee will shadow the physicians and learn about their respective department’s clinical processes. Individual clinician shadowing will allow for questions to be addressed by the supervising physician in real time during the observation shift. Trainees will also be assigned observation shifts with other relevant clinical roles, such as the nursing, manger, respiratory therapy, pharmacy to allow for comprehensive exposure to the care system.

Research Project

Trainees will spend time engaged in developing and implementing their own research project on a topic relevant to Emergency Medicine and/or Critical Care operations in their home country. Trainees will cultivate the skills associated with completing a research project including developing study design and methodology, gaining IRB approval if necessary, gathering and analyzing data, manuscript preparation, and submission of their scholarly work. The Program Director will provide guidance for the trainees in choosing research topics and guiding all aspects of the research process through structured support and established milestones. Trainees are expected to complete at least one scholarly work of publishable quality during the training program.

Conferences and Courses

The fellow will have the opportunity to participate in a select number of supplementary courses and conferences related to emergency medicine and critical care medicine. Participation in these courses are dependent on course director approval. Examples of appropriate courses include:

  • Brigham Research Institute
  • Clinical Pathway Improvement Processes (CPIP)
  • Center for Clinical Investigation Courses
  • Harvard Catalyst

Regular Meetings with Program Director and Other Faculty Staff

The trainees will meet regularly with their Program Director. General meetings with the Program Directors will be scheduled approximately every 1-2 weeks. Topics covered in these meetings will include reviewing the didactic activities the trainees participate in, updates to the fellows’ CVs, executive habits, and the trainees’ research projects. Any questions that the trainees have can also be addressed during this time.

Every three months, trainees will meet with the Program Director for a quarterly review to discuss the training program progression. This is a chance for trainees to not only receive feedback on all fronts, but also to help them structure their remaining training program time. Trainees are required to have their review Form completed and their research project work and updated curriculum vitae (CV) saved before this meeting; trainees who are unprepared will have their review rescheduled.

Additionally, fellows have opportunity to define an individualized area of interest that they wish to pursue under the supervision of the Program Director. Each trainee can request to schedule meetings with other faculty members that may specialize in this area of interest. These meetings must be approved by the Program Director and scheduled through the program coordinator.

Research Trainees

Xiaofeng Shi, MD, PhD
9/6/2018-2019
Tianjin First Center Hospital, China

Chung-Ting Chen, MD
9/6/2018-5/31/2019
Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan

Haiyan Yin, MD
8/24/2018-11/2/2018
Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, China

Liga Yusvirazi, MD
7/1/2017-present
St. Joseph Hospital, Bangor, Maine

Wei Shao, MD
10/1/2015-9/30/2016
Tianjin Nankai Hospital, China

Chun-Chieh “David” Chao, MD
8/1/2015-7/31/2016
Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taiwan

Yu-Ning Shih, MD
4/1/2015-3/14/2016
Taipei City Hospital, Hoping Branch, Taiwan

Sen-Kuang Hou, MD
8/1/2013-7/31/2014
Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taiwan

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