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The Pediatric Otolaryngology Clinical Fellowship at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, ß÷ßäÉçÇø in ß÷ßäÉçÇø, Canada was founded in 2004 to enhance our educational role nationally and internationally.

Eligibility

The fellowship position requires the applicant to have completed residency training in Otolaryngology and to have successfully passed licensing examinations in their country of origin. The fellowship is open to Canadian, as well as non-Canadian trained Otolaryngologists. Foreign medical graduates must be able to obtain a training visa for Canada and an educational licence for ß÷ßäÉçÇø. It is important to note that as per The College of Physicians & Surgeons of ß÷ßäÉçÇø, unless exempt, candidates are required to have completed the academic version of an English Language Proficiency (ELP) test within 24 months before submitting your CPSA application as noted on .

The Stollery Children's Hospital

, located within the ß÷ßäÉçÇø Hospital, is home to a mosaic of highly skilled child health professionals from many countries around the world. They have made this "hospital within a hospital" into a well-recognized centre for complex and specialized services. We care for children from Northern ß÷ßäÉçÇø, including Edmonton and the metropolitan area, as well as Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. For Pediatric Otolaryngology the population served is arguably more than two million. Please click on the link above for complete details regarding the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

Description of Services

The service is a busy subspecialty in the Stollery Children’s Hospital under the jurisdiction of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and closely tied to the Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS). Although most of the services are delivered in the Stollery, we cover all city hospitals and visits may be made to the other neonatal intensive care units.

A broad range of surgical repertoire is offered: open and endoscopic structural and functional airway procedures, mastoidectomies and tympanoplasties, saliva control procedures, sleep nasopharyngoscopy guided surgery, endoscopic nasal procedures, and developmental and oncological neck surgery. Multidisciplinary cases with other pediatric surgeons, adult Skull-base surgeons and OHNS surgeons are often undertaken. Joint endoscopic assessments along with pediatric pulmonologists and gastroenterologists are commonly undertaken for swallowing disorders and complex children with respiratory multi-factorial disease.

There are many multidisciplinary collaborations and clinics:

• Complex Pediatric Airway reconstruction team (Dr. El-Hakim and Dr. Al Aklabi – Cardiovascular Surgeon)
• Aerodigestive & Aspiration Clinics
• Cleft Lip and Palate Clinic
• Tracheostomy Clinic
• Voice Clinic
• Vascular Malformations clinic

Research Scope and Activity

Despite the overriding clinical nature of the training program, clinical research is desirable and encouraged. Dr. El-Hakim, guides and supervises the process; from the inception, planning and allocation stages to the execution and analysis. Monthly meetings for monitoring research progress are expected. The critical appraisal journal club serves as a hunt for ideas with structured literature searches and evaluations directed at clinical problems seen on a regular basis in the centre.

Academic Meetings / Journal Clubs

• Pediatric Otolaryngology Journal Club – Dr. El-Hakim leads monthly meetings where there are critical appraisals of selected articles. This is a forum for structured teaching of research methodology and evidence-based medicine, in addition to core subjects.
• OHNS Journal Club - meetings. Discussion of 2-3 articles from otolaryngology literature.
• OHNS divisional grand rounds (weekly)
• Pediatric Surgery grand rounds (monthly)
• Department of Surgery Grand Rounds (monthly)
• Department of Pediatrics Grand Round (weekly)
• OHNS Residents Research Day (annual – first Friday of May)
• Attend and participate in at least one of the major otolaryngology meetings in North America ( &), or an alternative in Europe if agreed upon with the director.

Allied Services

Audiology service

All modern investigative techniques are available and provide a wealth of experience to the fellows. Another rehabilitation centre (The Glenrose Hospital) houses advanced Speech and Audiology services; their scope is mainly children with multiple disabilities.

Speech & Language Pathology

The team covers out-patient and inpatient consults with bedside, functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing and video-fluoroscopic assessments.

General Duties and Responsibilities of Fellows

This is a one-year duration, which is primarily clinical in nature. Specific clinical responsibilities for the fellow are as follows:

• Help maintain the consultative service for otolaryngology.
• Provide direct and daily input to the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units with respect to airway management.
• Attend all surgical or endoscopic operative cases that evolve out of the above activities.
• Attend major surgical cases unique to the practice of pediatric otolaryngology.
• Attend daily ward rounds.
• Maintain a collegial and collaborative working relationship with the resident(s) and other staff.
• Provide on call cover, under supervision of staff pediatric otolaryngologists. The fellow takes part in a 1:3 on-call roster; this is complemented by the rotating otolaryngology resident and the pool of otolaryngology residents attached to the adult service. The fellow does not cover the adult on call.

Objectives and Expectations of Fellows

The aim is to train a professional, clinically and academically competent candidate:

Professional

• Compliance with the structure of the program, leadership of the director.
• Respectful interaction with peers, other specialists & allied health workers.
• Compliance with the prescribed study (2 weeks), statutory leave, and holidays (4 weeks) and disclosure of any reason that may hinder meeting these obligations.
• Reporting feedback appropriately through the mid-term and final evaluation processes, and provision of final report on activity and experience at the end of training.

Clinical

• Timely and completely meeting daily clinical assignments.
• Documenting prospectively an operative logbook and producing it (or at least a summary) to the director at mid- and end of term evaluations.
• Timely and appropriate response to feedback on clinical performance and progress.
• Sharing an equitable on call and daily clinical roster with the residents and reporting to the fellowship director on proposed arrangement or changes prior to implementation.
• Responsible use of allocated clinical resources (equipment, computers, instruments, records, etc.)

Academic

• Working on under guidance of the program director to enhance research methodology skills, practice of critical appraisal, and allocation of appropriate research projects.
• Working towards producing two manuscripts during the year.
• Presentation at local, national or international venues as committed and agreed upon with the primary investigators and the fellowship director.

Timetable

• There are two teams (composed of two staff surgeons). The fellow alternates with the resident to work on these teams.

Funding

• Specific inquiry is encouraged through the program director. The Stollery Hospital Foundation has graciously supported the fellows financially throughout the years with very few exceptions.

Accreditation

• The fellowship is not accredited, given the lack of an accreditation body and process for accreditation in Canada for Pediatric Otolaryngology fellowships.

Application Process

The completed application should be emailed to Cynna Reyes at cynna@ualberta.ca and include:

1. Curriculum Vitae (CV)
2. Three letters of reference with contact information for each
3. A personal covering letter outlining the candidate’s interest in the fellowship, as well as future career plans upon completion of the fellowship
4. A copy of any recent and relevant publications

If granted, an interview will occur in Edmonton giving the applicant an opportunity to see the facilities available for the fellowship for one week. Customarily, within two months from the interview date, the successful candidate will be informed once the committee has taken the decision and the funding for that particular year has been secured.

For application or inquiries, please contact:

Cynna Reyes, Assistant to

Dr. Hamdy El-Hakim, FRCS (Ed), FRCS (ORL)
Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship Program Director
Research Director for the Division of Otolaryngology
2C3.58 WMC, 8440 – 112 Street NW
Edmonton AB T6G 2B7

Phone: 780-407-8629 Fax 780-407-2004
Email: cynna@ualberta.ca