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About the Neonatal Neurocritical Care Fellowship Training Program

Launched in 2018, UT Southwestern's Neonatal Neurocritical Care Fellowship Program is currently one of fewer than five programs of its kind in the world and the sole program in Texas.

The program is designed for child neurologists and neonatologists who want to receive advanced training in neonatal neurology to care for neonates with neurological impairments.

To date, the multidisciplinary program has achieved numerous milestones, including UT Southwestern's Leaders in Clinical Excellence Award recipients Lina Chalak, M.D., M.S.C.S., Becky Ennis, M.D., and Myra H. Wyckoff, M.D..

Additional awards and honors are summarized below.

Example for year 2020:

NeuroNICU

Teaching/Education Special Programs

  • Creation of new Neonatal neurology accredited fellowship program
  • Neuronicu palliative program
  • FETAL brain program
  • TeleCOOLING program for transport cooling to optimize neonatal brain outcomes
  • Yearly outreach CME NEONATAL BRAIN MATTERS
  • CNE Conferences
  • Monthly virtual teaching training
  • Case of the week discussions
  • Official Neonatal NeuroNICU certification started NNANN nationally in January 2020

Research/Grants

  • Chalak, 3 active NIH grants
  • NIH-funded trials include four NIH-funded RCTs: HEAL, DARBE, preemie COOLING, and mild HIE
  • 5-10 yearly publications
  • Neuroimaging research collaborations with top institutions Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and UCSF NIH funding in collaborative trials
  • Visibility and reputation nationally and internationally Leadership in newborn brain society NBS, APS, SPR
  • High quality fellowship training/competitive for faculty hires

Clinical Programs quality and safety

  • Multidisciplinary team with dedicated nursing staff trained with high levels of competence
  • Standardized protocols to ensure consistent, optimal care throughout the continuum of referral, transport, critical and convalescent care, D/C all sites
  • Updated evidence-based protocols for 1) premature neuroimaging algorithms for MRI at term equivalent, and 2) Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)/Seizure algorithms, 3) neonatal abstinence
  • Team science with neurosurgery, neuroradiology. epileptology, autism spectrum
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