Overview of Clinical Services

The Division of Neurocritical Care at UT Southwestern is jointly supported by both the departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology. We have six primary faculty members and several secondary faculty members from neurointerventional, neurosurgery, neuroanesthesia, surgical, and pediatric critical care. We provide intensive care at both the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit (Neuro ICU) at Zale Lipshy Pavilion—William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Parkland Hospital. 

The Neuro ICU at Zale Lipshy Pavilion is a 20-bed ICU that is a large tertiary referral center for complicated vascular neurosurgical cases that include aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformation, moya moya, and dural fistula. UT Southwestern received Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center designation in 2013 and it is the only such center in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

As the only major academic program in the DFW area, we receive many transfers from surrounding areas for patients who need a higher level of care. We are currently building a new neuroscience tower at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital which will house a 26-bed Neuro ICU for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.

We have a large Advanced Practice Provider Program with Advanced Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants. Our multidisciplinary rounds consist of Critical Care Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, dedicated ICU Pharmacists, Case Managers, and Nutritionists.

Parkland Memorial Hospital is a Dallas County Level I Trauma Center and a comprehensive stroke center. The new Parkland building opened in 2015 and has 862 single-patient rooms and a dedicated 12-bed Neuro ICU with adjacent advanced CT imaging capability that was featured in the Neurocritical Care Society’s publication, Currents. 

Both ICUs are equipped with the latest Philips© Intellivue monitors, bronchoscopy procedure carts, Sonosite© portable ultrasound, noninvasive cardiac output monitoring, surface and intravascular cooling techniques, and video laryngoscopy with Glidescope© and McGrath©.

Neurocritical Care Curriculum

Two-year program accredited by United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties and the Texas Medical Board and developed based on UCNS Training Requirements and UCNS Curriculum. We train applicants from neurology, internal medicine, emergency medicine, and anesthesia residency training.

• 52-62 weeks – Neuro ICU
• 12-16 weeks –  Medical, Surgical, and Cardiothoracic ICU
• 4 weeks – Anesthesia (airway proficiency at beginning of fellowship)
• 4 weeks – Neurosonology
• 22-28 weeks – Elective/Selective/Research

Available electives: Neurosurgery, ICU EEG Monitoring, Stroke, Infectious Disease, Palliative Care, Emergency Critical Care Ultrasound, Neuroanesthesia, Neuro-Interventional Radiology. 

This represents a typical training pathway in our fellowship but adjustments can be made to better serve a candidate's career goals.

We offer a UCNS-accredited one-year fellowship for applicants with training in critical care medicine and neurosurgery.

We also offer a combined Neuroanesthesia/Neurocritical Care training pathway for Anesthesiologists. For additional educational material, visit Open Anesthesia.

Education and Didactics

We have weekly didactic conferences attended by faculty, fellows, residents, and NP/PAs which include journal article exchange, lectures on neurological and general critical care, debates, interesting case presentations, and M&M. Procedural skills are developed first with simulation for central venous cannulation, arterial cannulation, non-invasive ventilation, endotracheal intubation, and bedside critical care ultrasound. Training in EVD and intracranial monitor placement is supported by the Neurosurgery department. Fellows are expected to take part in monthly ICU quality improvement meetings and develop their own Quality Improvement projects.

Research

We are involved in several clinical trials and the list can be seen here at Neurocritical Care Research. We have monthly Neurocritical Care/Neurotrauma research meetings to propose new research ideas, discuss ongoing progress of current research, and invite presenters from other departments. 

Fellows are expected to design their own study during fellowship and present their work in abstract or publication form. An example of such work was recently published in Neurocritical Care. We have several clinical research networks with the Texas Institute for Brain Injury & Repair, Lonestar Stroke Consortium, the NIH supported Neuro NEXT network and the SIREN network for trauma and emergency neurological trials. We were the lead site for the BOOST-2 study and will be part of BOOST-3.  There are also opportunities for bench and translational research at UT Southwestern and off-campus neural engineering and cortical plasticity research at UT Dallas Neuroscience.

Salary and Benefits

Salary is very competitive nationally and is commensurate with PGY-5 and PGY-6 training levels. Fellows are given a generous yearly educational allowance to attend national meetings and extra-curricular training. A total of 15 days (three weeks) vacation time are given per year. Additional medical, dental, and retirement benefits are also available.

How to Apply

We participate in the Neurocritical Care Fellowship Match Program via the SF Match and receive applications via the Central Application System (CAS). For inquiries about the application process, fellowship positions listed outside the match, or any questions about our program, please email Stephen Figueroa, Fellowship Director, or tracey.peacock@utsouthwestern.edu, Fellowship Administrative Assistant.