UW Department of Surgery

Craniofacial, Pediatric, Maxillofacial Fellowship

The craniofacial fellowship is based on a large clinical referral base from five states. The non-ACGME fellowship program has graduated thirteen craniofacial surgeons who are currently practicing in academic and private practice environments. The fellowship educational experience is intrinsically linked to the Children’s Hospital Craniofacial Center, a 40 member interdisciplinary team with coordinated clinical and academic activities. Facial trauma experience is gained at the Harborview Regional Level I Trauma Center.

Goals and Objectives for Training

Graduates of the program will have been exposed to diagnosing and peri-operative care of a large clinical volume of both pediatric and adult congenital and acquired craniomaxillofacial abnormalities. The goal of the program is to train individuals to be competent in all aspects of surgery of the craniofacial skeleton. The fellowship experience is approximately 80% pediatric and 20% adult.
Training includes:

Cleft lip and palate care and repair;
Pediatric craniofacial surgery;
Craniomaxillofacial trauma of all ages;
Pediatric plastic surgery;
Pediatric and adult acute trauma and secondary trauma reconstruction;
Facial reanimation procedures
Craniofacial microsurgery
Distraction osteogenesis and orthognathic surgery; and
Clinical research.

Teaching Staff

There are three full time academic plastic surgery faculty in the Craniofacial program: Drs. Joseph Gruss, Richard Hopper, and Craig Birgfeld. Dr. Peter Neligan also operates with the craniofacial faculty on cases involving microsurgery and facial reanimation. The fellow will be exposed to the experiences of the interdisciplinary team of the Craniofacial Center including four craniofacial pediatricians.

Facilities

The program is based at the Craniofacial Center at Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, the pediatric tertiary care center for the North West region. Adult craniomaxillofacial experience, both acquired and congenital, is treated at Harborview Medical Center, a nationally recognized level I trauma center.

Clinical and Research Components

Clinical activity is on a supervised basis. Candidates for the fellowship must be eligible for a full Washington state license and will have faculty privileges at both hospitals. Active participation in ongoing clinical outcome studies and case series analysis is expected. Presentation of original clinical research at a national meeting is supported and expected.

Participant’s Supervisory & Patient Care Responsibilities:

As acting instructor at the University of Washington, the participant will be involved in the clinical supervision and teaching of medical students and plastic surgery residents.

Procedural Requirements:

Individuals in the program must have well-developed Plastic Surgery skills and be familiar with the full range of Plastic Surgery procedures.

Didactic Components:

Participants in the program participate in CME accredited national and regional craniofacial conferences. Attendance is expected at the weekly University of Washington Plastic Surgery Divisional Rounds.

Program Certifications: No additional certifications.
Date of inception of fellowship: 1993
Number of fellows graduated since inception: 21
Names and current positions of your fellows over the past ten years:

Year	Name (city or university)	Current location	Type of practice (private or academic)
2007	Craig Birgfeld, MD Univ of Washington	Seattle, WA	Academic
2006	Albert Woo, MD Washington Univ	St. Louis, MO	Academic
2005	Patrick Kelly, MD	Austin, TX	Academic
2004	Anna Kuang, MD OHSU	Portland, OR	Academic
2003	John Girotto, MD Univ of Rochester	Rochester, NY	Academic
2002	Arshad Muzaffar, MD Univ of Missouri, Columbia	Columbia, MO	Academic
2001	Fred Ehret, MD	Tacoma, WA	Private
2000	Michael Whelan, MD	Lynwood, MA	Private
1999	Mark Smith, MD Beth Israel Hosp	New York, NY	Academic
1998	John Grant, MD Univ of Alabama	Birmingham, AL	Academic

Number of surgeons the fellow will operate with at least every two weeks: 3
Number of hospitals the fellow will operate at for elective cases: 2
Average number of OR day blocks the fellows will attend per week (report half day blocks as 0.5): 3
Number of craniofacial or cleft related clinics that the fellow will attend per week (report half day clinics as 0.5) 1.5

Description of research opportunities during the fellowship:

Basic science research is:
Encouraged Available Not available

Clinical research is:
Encouraged Available Not available

Case studies / Chapters are:
Encouraged Available Not available

Case components of fellowship:

Fellowship component	# cases by fellow / 12 mo/ 2007
Craniomaxillofacial Trauma	78
Craniosynostosis-Single Suture	30
Craniosynostosis-Multiple Sutures	12
Cranioplasties	17
Intracranial Hypertelorism Corrections	3
Skull Base Tumor Approaches	3
Primary Cleft Lip Repair	14
Primary Cleft Palate Repair	18
VPI Repairs	14
Secondary Cleft lip/nasal Revisions	39
Alveolar Bone Graft	20
Rare Craniofacial Clefts	7
LeFort I +/- Distraction	2
LeFort III/Monobloc +/- Distraction	5
Mandible Osteotomy +/- Distraction	1
Elective LeFort Osteotomies with or without BSSO (non-cleft/non-CF syndromes)	2
Facial Paralysis	1
Microtia Reconstruction	0
Head and Neck Tumor Resection	6
Microsurgical Head and Neck Free Flaps	3
General Pediatric Plastic Surgery	51
Aesthetic Surgery	3

Program Director:

Richard Hopper, MD, Associate Professor and Chief of Service

Program Administrative Contact:

Kristi Yee
Fax: (206) 987-3064
Email: kristi.yee@seattlechildrens.org

Mailing Address:

Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center
Craniofacial Center, Division of Plastic Surgery
Dr. Richard Hopper, c/o Kristi Yee
4800 Sand Point Way
Mail Stop #W7847
Seattle WA 98105

Positions in this program are filled through the Craniofacial Match Program, http://sfmatch.org/. Individuals applying for this program must have completed an ACGME accredited residency in and be either board certified or board eligible in Plastic Surgery and eligible to be licensed in the State of Washington. Deadline for application to this program is October 1st of each year for the following year's appointment. Interviews are generally held during October and November.

Duration:

Program is a one-year appointment, July 1st – June 30th.

Prerequisite Training/Selection Criteria:

Applicants have completed verified training in Plastic Surgery.
This fellowship is based at the University of Washington Hospitals including primarily the Children's Hospital Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center.

The salary for this position is commensurate with institutional guidelines relative to the educational level of the individual involved.

Application materials required:

Individuals wishing to apply for this program should forward the following to Dr. Richard Hopper, c/o Kristi Yee (see address below):

A copy of the Certificate of Registration showing your SF Match number.
A formal letter of application addressed to Dr. Richard Hopper, c/o Kristi Yee, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, 4800 Sand Point Way, Mail Stop #W7847, Seattle, WA 98105.
An updated copy of your Curriculum Vitae.
A personal statement.
Three letters of reference. One letter from the director of your plastic surgery program; one letter from the director of your general surgery or advanced training program; and one letter from a colleague who is familiar with your performance.

If you are selected for an interview you will be contacted via email in October. Please list your best available email address on your Curriculum Vitae.

International Applicants:

If you are outside of Canada or the United States your fellowship application will not be submitted via SF Match. Please review information below.

See: UW GME Visa Policy and General Information page

Scope: All foreign national physicians participating in a clinical training program at the University of Washington.

Policy: The UW School of Medicine accepts foreign national physicians into its accredited residency and fellowship and non-ACGME accredited fellowship programs with J-1 visas sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). The UWSOM generally does not accept residents or fellows on H-1Bs into its accredited training programs unless the resident/fellow is otherwise ineligible for a J-1 visa. Requests for UW sponsorship on an H-1B visa are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and are subject to approval by the UW GME Office and the UW Provost’s Office.

Please read the following ECFMG links:

ECFMG Fact Sheet : http://www.ecfmg.org/evsp/j1fact.html
FAQs: http://www.ecfmg.org/2008ib/ibfaq.html
Processing Instructions for initial J-1 status: http://www.ecfmg.org/evsp/SEVIS_init.pdf

Please read through the USMLE information on the ECFMG website.

Canadian citizens:

You will need to be sponsored on a J-1 through the ECFMG however you will not need to be ECFMG certified:
Graduates of US, Canadian and Puerto Rican medical schools are not considered FMGs and do not require ECFMG certification.

Graduates of medical schools outside the US, Canada and Puerto Rico are considered FMGs and do require ECFMG certification (this includes US citizens who graduated from foreign medical schools).
If you have Canadian citizenship when you apply for the J-1, you may be able to come as a Canadian citizen and would not need to obtain a visa (Canadians are exempt from this). If you do not yet have Canadian citizenship, you would need to apply for the J-1 visa after receiving your J-1 sponsorship documents.

USMLE: Our program requires completion of steps l and ll of the USMLE. You will need to take this.
License: You will need to have completed the LMCC (Canadian licensing exam). The other requirements; graduation from a US/Canadian medical school and two years of post-graduate training you will have already met.

reviewed 4/08