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vPICU Fellowship Program

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The Laura P. and Leland K. Whittier Virtual Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (VPICU) is pleased to announce the creation of  the VPICU Fellowship Program.

Program Description

This program is designed to further research and development of the VPICU by supporting pediatric intensivists and others focusing on VPICU goals.  These include:

  • Developing pediatric critical care telemedicine programs
  • Developing distance learning programs for pediatric critical care
  • Research using VPICU databases
  • Research into measuring severity of illness
  • Developing grant proposals for further VPICU related research 
  • Train fellows from small as well as large hospitals and universities to increase VPICU resources, expertise and access to care in both rural and urban areas

Although the majority of the fellowships will focus on telemedicine or VPICU-related research projects, the purpose of the fellowship is to afford the physician the time necessary to further the mission of the VPICU and provide resources and research support associated with these fellowships.

Fellowship recipients will be carefully selected pediatric intensivists interested in developing the VPICU further, through telemedicine, quality and safety research, and database development, and wish to have a career in telemedicine and informatics.  The fellowships may vary from as little as three months to up to two years depending on the scope of their chosen project and precise purpose of the fellowship.  They will have the opportunity to learn about all aspects of the Whittier VPICU, including tele-patient care, research, data management, quality improvement, telemedicine, and education, through direct teaching and mentoring and extensive hands-on experience. 

The Whittier VPICU Fellows’ will be given commensurate salary, equipment, supplies, recruitment costs, and professional travel. For research fellowships, matching commitments from the fellows’ sponsoring institutions will be sought. 

Research Opportunities

Examples of suitable projects include but are not limited to:

  • Spend a year designing, organizing, and completing a quality improvement research project in the VPICU.
  • Have four months to visit telemedicine sites with the goal of establishing their own telemedicine program at their home institution or extending the current network.
  • Participate in a goal-directed six-month fellowship to analyze existing VPICU data and prepare and submit an NIH grant application.
  • Spend one year developing mathematical models for severity of illness algorithms, predictive models for critical incidents, or modeling morbidity outcomes.
  • Spend six months working with a vendor developing new technologies to support information dissemination to pediatric intensivists to enhance patient care—extended telemedicine capabilities.
  • Spend one year at Children's Hospital Los Angeles studying, with the purpose of duplicating all VPICU activities from telemedicine to clinical research to informatics.

To Apply

Applications for fellowships are invited. Please send a four page, single-spaced proposal with specifically stated needs and goals as well as a rationale and background for the proposed fellowship.   A CV for the candidate should be enclosed with the application.

Contact Information

For further information or to submit applications please:

Email Randall C, Wetzel, M.B, B.S
Director, The LP and LW VPICU

Please place ‘VPICU fellowship’ on the subject line.