Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship

General Information and Clinical Experience

Successful completion of this one-year fellowship enables the fellow to sit for the Spinal Cord Injury Certification Medicine Exam. The Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship is an ACGME-accredited fellowship available at Michigan Medicine. The fellow is offered clinical training in the diagnosis and classification of various types of traumatic and non-traumatic SCI, including vascular, infectious, oncologic, and stenotic etiologies.  The Michigan Medicine PM&R department houses a rapidly developing cancer rehab program offering the fellow greater opportunities to develop proficient management of SCI resulting from tumor complications.  Fellows will be provided an experience that develops their clinical decision making and management of spinal cord injury associated complications including urological and pain interventions, spasticity management, research statistics in SCI medicine, rehabilitation technology/engineering, exercise physiology, biomechanics and cognitive/behavioral management strategies for persons with SCI. Fellows will be offered the opportunity to be integral parts of multidisciplinary teams within various clinics including vent clinic, multiple sclerosis clinic, ALS clinic, wound care clinic, and neurogenic bowel clinic. Fellows will spend time teaching residents both formally and informally and will help guide residents on our SCI Inpatient Team.

Fellowship Resources and Benefits

House Officer Association

As part of an ACGME accredited fellowship, SCI fellows have access to all of the benefits of the University of Michigan House Officers Association. Salary and benefits are provided according to the HOA agreement.

“The Mission of the University of Michigan House Officers Association is to represent and advocate for its member physicians in obtaining the following:

  1. A professional workplace where neither patient care nor the well-being of the resident physicians are compromised through unsafe work conditions, hours, or environments; and​
  2. Fair compensation for the resident physicians, recognizing their collective and extensive education, the level of responsibility, and hours of providing care to their patients; and
  3. Respect and support for the ongoing continuing medical educational needs of the resident physicians; and
  4. Justice and due process in all interactions between resident physicians and the clinical departments, hospitals, attending physicians, or any others who seek to have an influence on our members; and
  5. Knowledge, skills and information that may be useful to our members either now as resident physicians or later as attendings, especially regarding our contract provisions and benefits, financial matters and planning, or any other personal or professional issues viewed as helpful to our member physicians, and
  6. Fellowship among its members.”

Resident Assistant

Our resident assistant is a crucial part of every inpatient team and provides administrative support to the physician team.  The resident assistant optimizes learning by taking responsibility for a huge number of administrative tasks that traditionally were assigned to trainees.  Trainees, therefore, spend more time on direct patient care and education.  Some of the resident assistant responsibilities include: scheduling patients for follow-up appointments; obtaining lab results and medical records from referring institutions; calling pharmacies and sending in prescriptions; obtaining radiology studies and placing them into our computer system; ensuring families have appropriate discharge planning; coordinating specialty nursing escorts for our patients; and much more.

On-Call

Inpatient call is taken by the PM&R residents. SCI fellows are not part of an overnight or weekend call rotation.

Holidays

Per the House Officers Association contract

  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Day after Thanksgiving
  • Christmas Eve
  • Christmas Day
  • New Year's Eve
  • New Year's Day
  • Memorial Day
  • Resident Birthday,

Vacation

4 weeks of vacation/year. 

Moonlighting

PM&R House Officers are permitted to engage in extracurricular medical practice that is not part of their training program if they have a permanent medical license and if the total hours worked per week (fellowship commitments and moonlighting) does not exceed 80 hours per week.

Salary and Lump Sum Bonus

The total compensation package is composed of salary and benefits. The salary component includes a contract increase and a promotional increase. The benefits include the payment to encourage savings ("lump sum payment"), long-term disability insurance, life insurance, Holiday Pay, and health insurance.  The lump sum is added to the November pay stub. Please see the HOA website above for details.

Procedure Opportunities

Fellows will be provided with ample opportunities to develop their hands-on skills in managing spasticity through the application of botulinum toxin/phenol blocks. Fellows will develop comfort using both ultrasound as well as EMG for better localization with the use of chemodenervation agents.  Fellows will develop increased confidence in managing baclofen pumps with opportunities to perform baclofen pump trials if interested. Additional EMG training is provided as desired by fellows. Fellows will also be exposed to diaphragm EMG to assist in decision making in regards to needs for phrenic nerve pacing for patients with higher level cervical lesions.

Work and Living Environment

Michigan Medicine is a renowned academic institution that is located in the heart of the charming and vibrant city of Ann Arbor which offers a plethora of wonderful opportunities for foodies, music lovers, art goers, outdoor enthusiasts, and sport fans alike.  For more details about life in Ann Arbor, check out our "Resident's/Fellow's Life" in Ann Arbor.  

Application

Michigan Medicine PM&R SCI Fellowship participates in the NRMP match

Interested candidates should email  SCI fellowship application.pdf, CV, personal statement, and three letters of recommendation (one of which should be from resident's current program director) to:

Jamie Saiberlich, GME Program Administrator 

Phone: (734) 615-6722
Fax: (734) 936-7115
E-mail: [email protected]

 

Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship Director

Gianna Rodriguez, MD

Clinical Professor, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Spinal Cord Injury Program Director
Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship Program Director
Medical Director, Wheelchair Seating Services
PMR Lead, Domino's Farms Comprehensive Wound Care Program
PMR Lead, Michigan Bowel Control Program
PMR Lead, Adult Assisted Ventilation Program
PMR Lead, SCI Peripheral Nerve Program

Current Fellow

Previous Fellows

Jennifer Weekes, M.D.