Vanderbilt Anesthesiololgy

Letter from the Program Director

Thank you for inquiring about the Critical Care Fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Acute Care Medicine and Critical Care Medicine remain the foundation upon which the modern medical practice of Anesthesiology is founded. As such, training in Critical Care Medicine not only teaches you about the care of patients in the intensive care unit, but about the management of critically ill patients within the operating room as well.

We have designed an educational experience, which is diverse and extensive. The fundamental premise, which has guided the development of your experience at Vanderbilt, is that Critical Care Medicine is a multidisciplinary practice of medicine, requiring the practitioner to have a broad understanding of many acute pathophysiological processes. Often, the intensivist has consulted other subspecialty experts (e.g. nephrology, infectious disease) to assist in the care of an acutely ill patient.

However, the intensivist will have to integrate the recommendations of the consulting services into a comprehensive plan of treatment. Thus, in order to be effective in treating a wide variety of acute illnesses and in coordinating care with the assistance of other subspecialty-trained physicians, the intensivist must be broadly trained in the treatment of acute illnesses.

Vanderbilt University is a major tertiary referral center and draws upon adult and pediatric patient populations within Tennessee and the bordering states. It is also a Level I trauma center. Together, this presents the training physician with a broad range of patients with both common and uncommon illnesses. Acutely ill patients are treated in one of nine intensive care units. Each of these units specializes in the care of a subset of these patients. The adult intensive care units include Neurological, Surgical, Cardiothoracic, Trauma, Medical, Coronary, and Burn ICU’s. The Department of Anesthesiology co-andministrates and manages patients in the Neurological, Surgical, and Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Units. The remaining units are administrated and managed by the Departments of Surgery and Medicine. As an institution, Vanderbilt believes in the multidisciplinary nature of critical care medicine, and as such, your training may take place in any of these intensive care units under the mentorship of your acadvisor and the fellowship director.

We normally accept only one to two fellows each year. We have deliberately kept the fellowship small to preserve the high quality of mentorship for our trainees.

It is recognized that this training is undertaken for a variety of reasons, some of which may not lead to an academic practice of intensive care medicine. Thus, a part of this mentorship is to devise a program of clinical experiences, which will meet the future goals of the trainees while fulfilling the requirements for Board Certification in Critical Care Medicine.

If you have further questions or would like to request an application packet, please feel free to contact the division’s administrative assistant, Beverly Fletcher. She may be reached at (615) 936-2454 or beverly.s.fletcher@vanderbilt.edu

Again, thank you for your interest in our program.

Lee Parmley, M.D, J.D.
Professor of Anesthesiology