Curriculum and Research
Curriculum
The critical care faculty including the Neuro ICU Faculty at UMASS are contributors and authors of various chapters in the authoritative evidence-based core text “Irwin and Rippe’s Textbook of Intensive Care Medicine” now in its 9th edition. All faculty from various specialties are committed to the mission of education in critical care and providing mentorship to trainees. There is a dedicated curriculum for the Neuro ICU fellows that is based on the core curriculum of topics recommended by the UCNS and ACGME for fellowship training programs. The fellows have the opportunity to individualize their curriculum to their needs and interest as well and run their didactic sessions with supervision from faculty. There are also multiple venues for learning that are available to the fellows from the Departments of Neurology, Anesthesia, Surgery, Pulmonary and Neurointerventional Radiology,
Lectures, Seminars and Meetings
Fellows attend and participate in lectures, seminars, research meetings and conferences during the year. We encourage the fellow to attend regional or national society meetings and to present their work.
Weekly Tuesday - Interdisciplinary neurology conferences
Fellows participate in the clinical neurology conference with collaborative colleagues from neurosurgery, neuro intervention, radiology, and other specialty groups to provide level one patient care with a collaborative specialty focus. The fellow must take part in at least one presentation during the training year.
Weekly - case discussion forums
Fellows participate in didactic lectures, research and case discussions presented to current attendings designed to
- Introduce new learning styles of approaching difficult cases
- learn to focus on specific and acute solutions via ongoing laboratory research and clinical trials
In addition, didactic lectures fellow will also participate in weekly residents’ neurovascular, and trauma bedside teaching sessions and participate in teaching in the latter half of the training.
Monthly Friday Journal Club
Individual lectures are presented once a month on Friday by fellows.
Research
We are actively engaged in clinical research with one of the largest ongoing cohort studies of moderate to severe TBI investigating various aspects of care and their impact on outcomes. We are also participants in ongoing clinical trials in Shared Decision Making and Family meeting communication that were initiated are led by Dr. Susanne Muehlschlegel who is now an adjunct faculty. We are a Stroke NET and SIREN center and participate in clinical trials such as BOOST-3, CHARM among other clinical trials, both NIH and industry-sponsored.
As part of initiatives to provide exposure to research and quality assessment and improvement, the fellowship features a dedicated research and clinical rotations to anchor weekly research and clinical sessions, which are the heart of our fellowship program.
Fellows are introduced to research opportunities through ongoing methods of patient evaluation and participate as sub-investigators for clinical trials while maintaining a comprehensive database of patients.
The fellowship is expected to expand curricular opportunities to incorporate experience in a video-based acute telestroke rotation due to the growing need for understanding and developing a working knowledge of patient care treatments.
Fellows also learn how to enroll patients into clinical trials and follow them through observation and intervention. The neurocritical care neurology fellowship has access to NIH (National Institutes of Health) sponsored clinical trials and a list of current trials listed in the UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Conquering Diseases database.