Our Training Sites
Our training sites include Texas Children’s Hospital and Ben Taub General Hospital. Texas Children’s Hospital is one of the largest and highly regarded pediatric hospitals in the nation, consistently ranked among the best by U.S. News & World Report. Ben Taub General Hospital is an outstanding acute care facility and an elite Level I trauma center in the heart of Texas Medical Center.
About the Program
The Baylor College of Medicine Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship program trains post-doctoral clinical fellows in four major domains:
- Patient Care
- Scholarship
- Education
- Leadership
Our core values of inclusivity, excellence, integrity, respect and service support our fellows' development as a whole physician to pursue careers as:
- Clinician researchers with expertise in clinical, basic science, translational and QI tracks
- Medical educators with proficiency in curriculum development, evaluation, teaching and educational research
- Master clinicians with excellence in patient care to support both academic and private practice careers
- Leaders in administration with skill sets to pursue positions such as department chairs, division heads, deans, medical directors and program directors.
The neonatal-perinatal fellowship provides fellows with a structured curriculum that includes extensive education in perinatal physiology, clinical neonatology, and research methods, and includes completion of a research project mentored by an experienced faculty member.
Upon completion of the program, qualified fellows are eligible for certification by the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-board of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.
Program Director's Message
Welcome to the Baylor College of Medicine Neonatology Fellowship Program! We're glad you are interested in our neonatology fellowship program and may be considering our program. The Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program established in 1961 by Dr. Arnold J. Rudolph. It was one of the first such fellowship programs established in the United States, and is currently among the largest academic neonatology training programs.
Each year, we select six pediatric residents to continue in an ACGME accredited three-year neonatology fellowship training program conducted at Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the United States, Ben Taub Hospital, a public hospital in Houston, and in the laboratories of investigators at Baylor and elsewhere in the Texas Medical Center. All of our fellows are selected via the NRMP match process.
In the last 30 years, our neonatology fellowship program has graduated over 250 fellows. These former fellows are practicing throughout the country and across the world. We have graduates working in Turkey, Guatemala, The Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Israel, and Mongolia. Our fellows conduct research in diverse clinical fields including human milk use in the NICU, in translational areas including the development and evaluation of novel lipid products for neonatal use, and in basic science such as novel methods to understand and prevent oxygen toxicity among other topics. Our laboratory resources include the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, a unique collaboration of the USDA/ARS, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital to conduct a range of nutritional research in children, and the Texas Children's Hospital Feigin Center. They also conduct scholarly projects in Education, QI, Advocacy, as well as other ABP approved areas for scholarly activities. Our fellows have the opportunity to earn a certificate or a Masters Degree from the Clinical Scientist Training Program at BCM to augment their basic fellowship training in these skill areas. BCM/TCH supports this research by providing scholarships to 10 Pediatric Subspecialty Fellows each year to offset the cost of tuition for Masters Degrees. During the last five years, neonatal-perinatal fellows in training have published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, presented their research at regional, national, and international scientific meetings. Our fellows’ have received travel and young investigator awards as well as national and international recognition from organizations including the Section of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The clinical experience in our neonatology fellowship program includes the opportunity to work in our beautiful Pavilion for Women where about 7000 infants are delivered each year, many of them part of our high-risk perinatal service which includes a fetal surgery service. We have clinical neonatology efforts dedicated to providing care to infants from throughout the community with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and intestinal failure. Our clinical efforts are supported by training in our state-of-the-art simulation center, where both clinicians and trainees practice working in high-risk life-threatening situations before they encounter them with real patients in the clinical environment. Whole body cooling, ECMO and EXIT procedure management, and Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) are routine parts of our neonatology fellowship training experience. We have also introduced a POCUS curriculum and POCUS clinical training to our fellows’ experience. Our daily neonatology census at our primary training hospitals is usually over 150 babies each day.
We are committed to offering our fellows outstanding opportunities for the highest quality clinical training, professional identity formation, and in developing their career in neonatology. We welcome you to take a look through the website and to contact our neonatology fellowship program coordinator, Amiya Davis at Amiya.davis@bcm.edu. You may also contact me directly with any questions.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Melissa M. Carbajal, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Director
Associate Division Chief – Education
Division of Neonatology
Department of Pediatrics
Admissions and Benefits
Each year, we select six pediatric residents to continue in an ACGME accredited three-year neonatology fellowship training program. All of our fellows are selected via the NRMP match process.
Benefits
See stipends and benefit information on the Baylor College of Medicine’s graduate medical education website. Stipend levels are at the national average, but Houston's cost of living ranks among the lowest of metropolitan areas in the United States.
Maintaining your physical and emotional wellness is a prerequisite to professional success. Our residents have access to a number of programs to support their well-being. View wellness resources.
Information about vacation and leave of absences is available on the graduate medical education website.