Perioperative Medicine Fellowship

The Department of Anesthesiology is excited to announce a new Fellowship in Perioperative Medicine.  The term perioperative medicine describes the non-surgical care of patients from the time surgery is considered through the perioperative period and to full recovery.  In the practice of perioperative medicine, many medical specialties work in concert to provide optimal outcomes for surgical patients.  The medical knowledge distinct to this field includes that of surgical and anesthesia risks and complications, patient-specific risks due to co-morbid medical conditions, and methods by which to reduce risk and manage medical illness in the perioperative period. 

The evidence supporting the value of best practices in perioperative medicine is rapidly expanding, and the full spectrum of this domain of medicine is not covered in any core residency program. In light of this, the Department of Anesthesiology’s innovative new fellowship program is designed to place trainees at the forefront of this important area of medicine, preparing them to provide personalized precision perioperative care.  As one example, if postoperative mortality from cardiac causes (within 30 days of surgery) was considered as a disease entity, it would be the third leading cause of death among adults in the United States.  Knowledge of how to properly assess risk and manage medical comorbidities throughout the entire perioperative period stands to make significant improvement in the highest risk patients.

The Perioperative Medicine Fellowship was created with input from a multi-disciplinary team at Vanderbilt, including faculty from the Departments of Anesthesiology, Medicine, and Surgery. It is a one-year program that will train participants to be leaders in the clinical and academic research components of their professions, teaching them the skills needed to implement and manage their own perioperative consult service upon completion.  Up to four trainees will be admitted into the fellowship each year.  During the fellowship program, participants can expect to gain experience in the following core rotations: Perioperative Consult Service, High-Risk Preoperative Evaluation Clinic, Echocardiography and Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Management, Research, and a wide variety of electives.

One unique aspect of this new fellowship offering is that it is open to those who have completed an ACGME-accredited residency program in anesthesiology or in general surgery.  Furthermore, faculty instructors in the program come from the VUMC Departments of Anesthesiology, Surgery, and Medicine, making this a truly cross-departmental educational effort - mirroring the collaboration inherent to the concept of perioperative medicine. 

Applications are now being accepted for training to start in August 2020. To learn more about the new Perioperative Medicine Fellowship, including information on how to apply, visit the Department of Anesthesiology’s website at www.vandydreamteam.com.