Education

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

Our program has a long history of academic excellence with strong global outreach. The fellowship focuses on developing skill in diagnostic interviewing, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic management. Fellows graduate with an outstanding knowledge base in child development, principles of research, and systems of care. Our training mission is to prepare future clinician and leaders in our field who can make a significant impact by engaging families and positively affecting mental health outcomes.

Karam Radwan, MD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience

 

2024-2025 Resident Stipends
PGY-1: $73,015
PGY-2: $77,234
PGY-3: $79,898
PGY-4: $83,530
PGY-5: $87,161
PGY-6: $88,978

Vacation
All residents receive four weeks of paid vacation leave per year to be scheduled by mutual agreement between the resident, chief resident, service chief, and the Program Director.

Sick Leave
Five days of paid sick leave is granted to residents who are absent from work and unable to perform their assigned duties due to illness.

Offices
All residents have individual offices to see patients and accomplish other duties in a professional manner.  All offices are furnished with a computer.

Computer Access
Universal Workstations are located throughout the Hospitals, through which residents can access labs, patient information, word processing, the Internet, as well as Medline and other medical information databases.

Call Frequency
There isn't any in-house call.  In the first year of the child residency program, there is phone back up when rotating on the inpatient service at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial once a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday only).

Medical Leave
Residents are provided a four-week paid leave for maternity-related purposes or other required medical care.

Other Leaves of Absence
Residents may request a personal Leave of Absence from the Program Director who grants such leave in cooperation with Office of Housestaff Affairs. Such a request should be predicated on some unusual and substantial personal situation. In all but rare cases, a leave of absence should not exceed twelve weeks. We also have policies on bereavement and civil leaves.

Educational Meetings
Residents may attend educational meetings at the discretion of the Program Director and relevant service chief. The dates of such meetings must not interfere with good patient care. Excused absence for attending such meetings should not extend beyond the dates of the educational meeting and necessary travel time. Additional days will be considered vacation time and also should be scheduled with the permission of the Program Director.

Benefits
University of Chicago Hospitals house officers are eligible for a benefits package that includes dental coverage, flexible spending accounts, health insurance coverage, life insurance, long term disability, personal accident insurance, tuition remission for spouses and children, supplemental retirement annuities, and workers' compensation.

Professional Liability Coverage
The Hospital provides medical malpractice liability coverage for all residents for activities performed in connection with assigned duties as a resident at the University of Chicago Hospitals and at off-site rotations with prior written approval. The coverage is a composite of self-retained coverage funded by a composite of self-retained coverage funded by a trust fund and purchased excess commercial insurance.

Library Facilities
Residents are granted borrowing privileges at the University of Chicago Libraries, one of the largest libraries in the country with over 10 million volumes. Residents have 24-hour access to The John Crerar Library, the major research library for medicine, and the biological sciences on the University campus, containing 570,000 titles and located across the street from the Hospitals.

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First Year:

In the first year, clinical rotations are offered in inpatient adolescent psychiatry, emergency services, forensic and consultation/liaison psychiatry. In addition, fellows begin their longitudinal outpatient experience.

Compass Health Center PHP/Outpatient Rotation:
Compass Child Partial Hospitalization Program is a partial hospitalization program (PHP) for children ages 5-18.  Children in this program, typically, have had histories of psychiatric hospitalization or residential treatment or are at risk for such treatment. It is considered to be an acute setting for patients who need higher level of care. The clinical services for both the full and half day components include individual and family therapy, and group therapy by age group. Within the context of a behavior modification program, children have opportunities to develop social and adaptive skills, while stabilizing acute symptoms. Our fellows provide direct psychiatric care, assessment and treatment to children and adolescents while working under supervision of a child and adolescent psychiatrist.  The child psychiatrists at Compass who supervise our residents are Dr. Colleen McGuire and Dr. Vijay Khilanani.  Dr. Khilanani is a former graduate of our program.

Forensic Rotation:
This rotation is a subcomponent of the inpatient experience. Fellows work with Dr. Nierman in his role as a Forensic Psychiatrist. Dr. Nierman, a forensic expert, plays an integral role in the didactics component of the forensic rotation. Residents can choose to be involved in cases, and participate in the formulation of reports for civil, family, mental health or criminal court cases. The resident’s role is to participate in the evaluation of the patient, acquisition of collateral information, review of records and assist in preparation of a formal written forensic report. Residents accompany Dr. Nierman to all conferences, depositions and courtroom testimony. They learn the art of forensic interviewing, report preparation, and courtroom testimony.

ER Rotation:
The ER Residents evaluate patients and their families presenting to UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Intake Unit and to the Comer and Mitchell Emergency Departments in order to determine the appropriate level of care needed. There is an opportunity to do multidisciplinary work with social workers and community agencies such as SASS, schools, and law enforcement.

The Pediatric Consult-Liaison:
The pediatric consult-liaison service is a 4-month rotation for 1st year trainees in the child & adolescent psychiatry training program. Dr. Khalid Afzal is the Director of the Consult-Liaison Service. The experience involves a range of consultation opportunities to the general pediatrics and pediatric sub-specialty teams at Comer Children’s Hospital. Trainees also have opportunities to assess patients in the emergency room at Comer.

Trainees work closely with the attending faculty, Dr. Afzal and frequently do walking rounds through the hospital. Opportunities exist to do brief individual and family therapy, medication management of a variety of C/L presentations. Numerous educational opportunities exist on this rotation. Trainees work closely with the supervising faculty on a daily basis. In addition, there is weekly child C/L case rounds, a combined adult-child C/L case conference, and bedside teaching while seeing cases at Comer. Research electives are available for those who are interested.

Highland Park Hospital:
This rotation was created following a collaborative merging between NorthShore Health System and the University of Chicago. It provides fellows with the unique opportunity to work with a suburban patient population and to acquire the necessary skills for their diverse needs. Fellows become part of a multidisciplinary milieu during which they gain experience working with outside systems of care. They rotate with two to three different experienced child and adolescent psychiatrists. Fellows become acquainted with the administrative aspects of private practice, Partial Hospitalization, Intensive Outpatient, and in an inpatient setting working with adolescents.

Second-year rotations:

Neurodevelopmental Clinic:
This rotation involves a one-half day per week commitment week for 4 months. The neurodevelopmental clinic serves preschoolers, children, adolescents with suspected pervasive developmental disorders as well as a variety of associated comorbid conditions. Fellows work closely with Dr. Radwan, the current section chief and training director, and a multidisciplinary team of professionals including psychologists, developmental pediatricians, speech and language pathologists and neurologists who specialize in pervasive development disorders.

Pediatric Neurology Clinic:
Fellows rotate through the outpatient pediatric neurology service one-half day per week for four months and work with Dr. Marcuccilli. They attend neurology outpatient clinic and participate in the evaluations of new and follow-up patients. Fellows initially see the patient, present the case to the attending and see the patient with the attending who reviews the critical aspects of the examination. The neurology clinics at the University of Chicago see a broad range of neurological problems, including seizure disorders, trauma, perinatal injuries, CNS malformations, metabolic disorders, tumors, developmental delays, neurological manifestations of autoimmune disease and other systemic illnesses.

Mood and Anxiety Clinic:
This rotation spans 12 months during which fellows spend one half day per week. Run by Dr. Karam Radwan, this clinic offers fellows the unique opportunity of working from a broad range of therapeutic orientations, including cognitive behavioral, client-centered, dialectical behavior therapy, time-limited psychodynamic, solution-oriented, play, and systemic psychotherapy.

Eating Disorders and Family Based Psychotherapy Clinic:
This rotation runs for 4 months and involves one half day per week. In the Eating Disorders Clinic fellows master the use of standardized evaluations (the Eating Disorders Examination, EDE) with patients presenting with various eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, obesity, binge-eating disorder, and unspecified eating disorders. The treatment approach adopted by the clinic is based on a manualized family therapy model, the Maudsley approach, as developed by former faculty Dr. LeGrange. The clinic also serves as a vehicle to conduct clinical research investigating effective treatments of these disorders. The clinic has been operating for over 10 years serving patients from surrounding communities and across the country. Fellows are supervised by Dr. Seeba Anam MD and Dr. Jennifer Wildes Ph.D.; in addition, they work in a multi-disciplinary team with psychology trainees.

Neuropsychology Clinic:
This rotation entails one half day per week for 4 weeks. Fellows work with Dr. Scott Hunter Ph.D., the head of Pediatric Neuropsychology. During this rotation, fellows learn how to select appropriate neuropsychological assessment tools, score tests and clinically interpret them. Emphasis is placed on advancing knowledge in the interpretation and understanding of findings (both quantitative and qualitative) gleaned from neuropsychological assessment.

Community / School Consultation:
This rotation entails one half day per week for 4 months duration. This rotation comprises exposure at the Hyde Park Career Academy (High School- 9th-12th grade). In addition, there are community consultations with the Child Protective Services Team (CPS) at The University of Chicago Hospitals (UCH). Fellows provide consultation services to the school system, and to individual teachers/ staff and parents. Trainees participate in psychoeducational sessions, such as conducting on-site teaching/ education sessions in the classroom setting. Residents also have “drop-in hours” where teachers, students, and parents are encouraged to ask individual consultation questions.

Electives:
During the second year fellows are given additional time to pursue a variety of electives available both within the University of Chicago Hospitals and outside if desired.  Fellows are able to choose between clinical and educational electives pending approval from the Program Director, and this can be tailored to fit the unique educational interests of each individual fellow.  Past examples include reading electives, outside clinical experiences, additional time spent in pre-exisiting clinics, and administrative electives.

Research:
This is an individually tailored rotation, where fellows have the choice to delve into a broad range of research areas ranging from clinical to basic research. Fellows join an established research group at The University of Chicago, develop their own project or participate in an ongoing research project, and present their data and conclusions to the department section by the end of their second year of training. Fellows can spend additional elective time should they choose to.

Administrative Duties:
Fellows attend QA meetings and regular meetings with Dr. Radwan to become familiar with the functioning of the clinical services. Fellows assist in the administrative aspect by reviewing referrals and intakes, referring cases to the appropriate clinics and participating in supervision of residents in the Adult track conjointly with the attending psychiatrist.

The below schedule is for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays.  Wednesdays all fellows are on-site for didactics all day.

UC = University of Chicago
COMP= Compass Health Center
HPH = Highland Park Hospital
HPA = Hyde Park Career Academy (School)
PRE = Paul Revere Elementary
COMM = Various Locations

First Year Fellows

4 Months

4 Months

4 Months

Inpatient and partial hospitalization 90% HPH Partial hospitalization 90% COMP ER & C/L 80% UC
Psychotherapy ½ day a week 10% UC Psychotherapy ½ day a week 10% UC Outpatient 10% UC:
Psychosomatic Medicine Clinic ½ day a week
    Outpatient 10% UC
Psychotherapy ½ day a week

Second Year Fellows

4 Months

4 Months

4 Months

Outpatient 60% UC       Mood/ Anxiety Psychotherapy             General Psychopharm Clinic(at Northshore) Outpatient 60% UC     Mood/ Anxiety Psychotherapy           Eating Disorders       General Psychopharm Clinic(at Northshore) Outpatient 60% UC          Mood/ Anxiety Psychotherapy                        General Psychopharm Clinic(at Northshore)
Elective/ Research 20% UC Elective/ Research 20% UC Elective/ Research 20% UC
Admin Duties 10% UC
(Includes Admin Clinic)
Admin Duties 10% UC
(Includes Admin Clinic)
Admin Duties 10% UC
(Includes Admin Clinic)
Community/School 10%
HPA/ PRE/ COMM
Neurology 10% UC Neurodevelopmental Clinic UC 10%

Goals and Objectives