Education & Training
Learn More About Our Education Components
Strengths of Our Program
Clinical
The Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric Fellowship offers rich and varied clinical experiences. The fellows have a weekly DBP continuity clinic and spend time in other DBP clinics with faculty members. They also rotate in interdisciplinary clinics for children with autism, fetal alcohol spectrum, craniofacial disorders, ADHD, Down syndrome, adoption issues, tuberous sclerosis, and meningomyeloceles with faculty members within our division. Outside of our division our fellows rotate with genetics, sleep medicine, preemie follow-up, neurology and comprehensive care. Unique to our fellowship, our fellows have the opportunity to explore another hospital system’s developmental and behavioral resources through a month-long rotation at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. This experience includes time in their feeding clinic, cerebral palsy clinic, autism clinic, autism school and inpatient pain program. As knowledge of resources is an important part of training, fellows visit schools and sites that provide resources as well as attend conferences to learn about resources. The third year fellow has flexibility for electing to spend time in clinics, which will prepare them for their anticipated career placement. Ultimately, our fellows are trained to function independently as well as in a variety of interdisciplinary environments.
Inpatient
While inpatient experiences are not typically expected to be a large portion of the Rainbow DBP fellow’s training time, inpatient consultations are seen at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital occasionally and they may include developmental-behavioral evaluations. Some rotations, like neurology and genetics, may include some rounding with the inpatient teams.
Teaching
There is an emphasis on the development of teaching skills through the expectation and opportunity to teach in multiple forums. Fellows teach a variety of learners in multiple settings including, the weekly division seminar, Board Review, medical students, and residents. The weekly division seminar is used as a forum to evaluate and learn from the teaching of others and to practice presentations. The fellows are also active in teaching pediatric residents when they rotate in their continuity clinics. In addition, the fellows have the opportunity to attend an ongoing series of seminars on the development of teaching skills through Case Western Reserve University.
Research
Divisional and institutional supports mentor the fellows through the pursuit of a research project. The research project is developed in year one with major blocks of time in year two for executing the project and writing it up. Year three research time is for completing research activities. Within the division and the institution, there are multiple individuals who provide mentoring for research projects. Nine of the past ten fellows have published peer reviewed papers based on work done during their fellowship.
Advocacy
Fellows have the opportunity to attend the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual State Legislative Day, and several of our fellows have also attended the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual National Legislative Day in Washington, DC. Fellows also have the opportunity to work on advocacy projects.
Board-Certification
After completion of our three-year fellowship, graduates are eligible for the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics subspecialty boards. Since 2007, 100 percent of fellows have passed their DB pediatrics subspecialty boards.