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Program Description

The Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and now Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen has been a focus for innovative patient care and education since the department was established in 1950. It has, in the past few decades, also become a center for translational and clinical research with a strong focus on health services and outcome studies.

Members of the department faculty are leaders in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the National Board of Medical Examiners, and the American Board of Pediatrics as well as many other subspecialty and educational organizations. Innovative patient care practices pioneered here include the practice of family-centered care, regionalized perinatal and cardiology care, telemedicine for rural pediatric emergency care, establishment of collaborative networks for sharing of data  and quality improvement studies, and the introduction of phototherapy and artificial surfactant for treatment of sick newborns. Current research efforts are focused on multiple aspects of cancer rsearch with patients seeking their care for these special studies from all over the country and the world.

National and international quality projects based here include the Vermont Oxford Neonatal Network (with membership of over 850 neonatal intensive care units worldwide), the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (enrolling essentially all pediatric practices in the state to improve our health outcomes), leadership of the Pediatric Research in Office Settings network of the AAP and the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease network. Members of the department serve as editors-in-chief of publication as such as the journal Pediatrics; and Bright Futures, the national standard by which preventive health maintenance pediatrics is practiced in this country.

Residents regularly do research with and contribute to these organizations and projects, as well as complete their own advocacy projects and research, some of which are currently supported by AAP Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) grants and other external funding. Vermont has recently been rated the healthiest state in the country and a leader in children's health in areas such as prevention of infant mortality. Our training program is designed to equip our residents with the research and teaching skills needed to achieve this kind of excellence in child health for themselves, no matter what area of pediatrics they choose to pursue.

The Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen has an extensive range of specialty physicians and allied health professionals.

Pediatric specialty rotations include:

Allergy  Cardiology 
Dermatology Endocrinology
Gastroenterology & Nutrition Genetics
Hematology & Oncology Immunology
Infectious Diseases Neurology
Nephrology Orthopedics & Sports Medicine
Pulmonology Radiology
Rheumatology  

Comprehensive pediatric surgical services include neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, maxillofacial and thoracic surgery, transplantation and urology.