Fellowship Spotlight: Pediatric Anesthesiology

A Fellowship Program Director’s perspective…

Franklyn Cladis MD FAAP

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Program Director
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship
The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Anesthesiology Residency: University of Rochester 1998-2001
Pediatric Anesthesiology at The Children’s Hospital of Boston 2001-2002

Why anesthesia?

I chose anesthesiology because it combined the best parts of all of the medical, surgical, obstetrical and pediatric specialties into one acute care specialty. In a day you can be a ‘resuscitologist’, clinical pharmacologist, pain reliever, and crisis/family counselor.

What is the goal or intent of the fellowship program?

Our goal is to train the next generation of pediatric anesthesiologists. I value emotional intelligence and clinical competence the most.

In addition to the routine pediatric surgical patients, the Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow will be expected to master the anesthetic care of complicated pediatric patients undergoing repair of orthopedic, neurologic, urologic, plastic, and general surgical pathologies. The fellow will also be exposed to pediatric patients with organ failure undergoing transplantation and non-transplantation procedures.

The Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow will develop expertise in critical perioperative pediatric care, pediatric advanced life support, invasive monitoring, and pediatric pain management during subspecialty rotations on the Acute Pain Medicine Service, Congenital Cardiac Service, and The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

What is the case volume or types of procedures fellows do?

The Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is designed to further develop clinical expertise in caring for neonates, infants, children, and adolescents undergoing a wide variety of surgical, diagnostic, and therapeutic procedures. There are approximately 30,000 anesthetics performed yearly at the Children’s Hospital sites. It is among the oldest and most successful fellowships of its kind in America and it is one of the first Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowships to receive ACGME accreditation.

Our fellows on average perform 500 pediatric anesthetics and it includes everything from NICU cases to medically complex children. In particular our fellows perform on average 50 pediatric peripheral nerve blocks per year.

What career paths were taken by prior fellows? Pros vs Cons of private vs academic?

Our fellows are 50% academic and 50% private practice. Both are essential and important. Our job is to help our fellows figure out which career path is best for them.

Date of Publication: Spring 2018