Thank you for your interest in the Pediatric Kidney Diseases Fellowship at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago!  This page includes descriptions and statistics about our Fellowship and its many research and educational opportunities.  Please browse other divisional pages to read about our clinical and research facilities and about our team of dedicated faculty and staff. 

As the only independent children's hospital in the nation's third largest city, Children's Memorial Hospital brings unparalleled training opportunities.  Children's is the pediatric affiliate of the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University, which is approaching the top twenty research-intensive universities of the US.  Children's Memorial Hospital was recently ranked the 10th best hospital in the country for Pediatrics by the US New and World Report for 2006.

With 265 beds, Children's Memorial Hospital is the medical school's primary pediatric teaching institution.  It is located three miles from Northwestern's Chicago campus in the Lincoln Park area.  Founded in 1882 as a free-care hospital for critically ill children, Children's has become a referral center that attracts patients from around the world.  Begun in 1984, the Children's Memorial Research Center has evolved as the Midwest's only institution devoted exclusively to pediatric medical research, and one of only five free-standing pediatric research centers in the country.

The program in Kidney Diseases at Northwestern University/Children's Memorial Hospital is one of the busiest in the nation, with over 3,000 outpatient visits per year, 20-25 transplants per year, and an inpatient service that oversees both our own patients and a busy consultative service that supports the largest pediatric tertiary/quaternary services in the Midwest with all modalities of kidney replacement therapies.  We have a free-standing, independent, wholly pediatric dialysis unit in collaboration with DaVita, Inc as well.

Members of our academic group are active nationally, participating in study sections, symposia, editorial boards and the leadership of specialty societies.  We also contribute patients to the various national collaborative studies of patients with pediatric kidney disease.  Locally, we benefit from our ties to both the Children's Memorial Research Center, and the strong research environment (collaborators and mentors) available both at the Feinberg School of Medicine downtown and on the University campus in Evanston.

An extra benefit of our program is its location in Chicago, an exciting city with a neighborhood feel.  Those of us who moved to Chicago to join the program found the possibility of relocating here to be an important part of the decision to do so, and we haven't been disappointed.

Current Fellows:

Mindy Banks, MD
Margret Bock, MD
Jessica Curley, MD
Gal Finer, MD
Melisha Hanna, MD
Jennifer Willis, MD

FELLOWSHIP FACTS / STATISTICS

Name of Program: McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program
Number of Fellows accepted/year: 2
Accredited by RRC: yes
Year program started: 1982
Address: 2300 Children's Plaza, Box 37; Chicago, IL 60614  USA
Duration of fellowship (years): 3
US citizenship required: no
Salary support: yes
Salary source: permanent endowment
Salary number of years: 3
Salary amount: appropriate for level of postgraduate training
Salary guaranteed: yes

Program Director: Craig B. Langman, MD
Contact Person: Debbie Muse, dmuse@childrensmemorial.org

CLINICAL PROGRAM: KIDNEY DISEASES

New patients in 2004: hemodialysis: 8, peritoneal dialysis: 8-10, acute kidney replacement therapy: 30-40, acute dialysis of any type: 5-10
Total number of patients cared for in 2004: hemodialysis: 25, peritoneal dialysis: 21, CVVH/CAVH: 52, acute dialysis of any type: 18
Total Inpatient admissions per year (2004 data): 250
Total Inpatient consultations per year (2004 data): >300
Total Outpatient visits per year (2004 data): >4000
Time spent in clinical work (hours): Year 1: 75, Year 2: 20, Year 3: 10
Frequency of clinics attended: Year 1: at least weekly, Year 2: weekly, Year 3: weekly
Meeting attendance provided: yes
Book fund provided: yes

CLINICAL PROGRAM: KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION

Located on site? yes
Is the Kidney Transplantation program exclusively pediatric? yes
Number of kidney transplant in 2004: living related: 13, cadaver: 6-7, living non-related: 1-2, total: 20+
Number of pediatric kidney transplants (age 18 or less): 2004: 21, 2003: 20, 2002: 22, 2001: 26

RESEARCH PROGRAM

Research training occurs for 2 years of the 3 year Fellowship.  Where appropriate, other degrees that may be pursued include: Masters of Clinical Investigation; Masters of Public Health 

Co-operative Group Membership: NAPRTCS - North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study; SPNSG - Southwest Pediatric Nephrology Study Group

ONLINE FELLOWSHIP POSTINGS: American Academy of Pediatrics and CareerMD.com 

Master of Science in Clinical Investigation at Northwestern

The Master's Degree Program in Clinical Investigation is sponsored by a consortium of Medical School departments and coordinated by the Northwestern Center for Clinical Research (NCCR) and the Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine. It offers a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) degree to students seeking to acquire the fundamental skills needed for a successful career in clinical investigation. The program complements the Master of Public Health Program in providing rigorous education in quantitative and ethically sound methods that are necessary for the design, implementation, analysis, and publication of clinical research studies. Students take required courses in epidemiology, biostatistics, ethics, medical writing, molecular medicine, and modern laboratory techniques. They are offered elective courses in clinical trials, drug development, molecular epidemiology, and chronic disease epidemiology among others to further enhance their skills in patient-oriented translational or clinical epidemiology research. The culmination of the degree experience is the completion of a mentored research project. This program is part-time and consists of evening courses. Students are expected to obtain the degree in two to three years.

Biostatistics Collaboration Center at Northwestern

The Biostatistics Collaboration Center (BCC) is a new Biostatistics resource that was made available to researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine in June 2004.  The BCC is established to promote the highest standard in research and education, confirming our collective commitment to providing the highest quality of clinical research services.  Our mission is to conduct high quality innovative research in collaboration with faculty investigators and to establish the BCC as a recognized resource of biostatistical science.  We are conducting methodological research to enhance the existing knowledge in statistics and collaborative research to assist clinical researchers in making the best use of their resources through efficient study design and statistical analysis. The BCC will provide consulting services on statistics, programming and data management to any individual or organization involved with medical research, and offer when needed, workshops and seminars on statistical methodology. We are striving for excellence in research, service and education.  The BCC provides statistical support and expert consultation for the planning, design, development and execution of studies, and the analysis and interpretation of data, as well as the preparation of reports and manuscripts for basic science, clinical and epidemiologic research projects.

Master of Public Health (MPH) Program at Northwestern

The mission of the Northwestern University Master of Public Health Degree Program is to provide an educational environment for health professionals that fosters acquisition of knowledge about the factors that contribute to the health and diseases of populations and to educate these individua ls to be boundary spanners between professions engaged in clinical care and public health. The mission capitalizes on and emphasizes the unique resources available through Feinberg School of Medicine, its faculty, and the Chicago area. The program educates students to recognize and interpret research that contributes to better health outcomes and identify preventive strategies that may reduce and prevent health problems. This comprehensive public health program addresses at the individual level the concept of lifestyle behaviors aimed at reducing risk, at the organizational level the optimal delivery of care, and at the population level the concept of reduced frequency of disease. The goals of the program are to provide our students:

• A broad perspective on the definition and promotion of health that incorporates the concepts of prevention, health promotion, health care organization and delivery, and population-based research and intervention.
• An interdisciplinary public health knowledge base derived from relevant areas including biomedical and social scientific theories and empiric evidence.
• The quantitative, educational, organizational, and practical skills needed to ensure that all graduates will be well prepared for their future public health practice, teaching, and/or research endeavors.

Please contact Debbie Muse at dmuse@childrensmemorial.org if you would like to learn more about our unique fellowship in Pediatric Kidney Diseases at Children's Memorial Hospital.