Pediatric Urology Fellowship

The Pediatric Urology Fellowship at the UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas is a two-year fellowship committed to the training of future physician leaders in the field of pediatric urology. The first year is spent pursuing educational and research activities and is protected from clinical involvement. The second year is a clinical year and is ACGME-accredited. The Pediatric Urology Clinical Program is one of the busiest in the country and is ranked within the top 10 programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.

Research Year (Year 1)

There are many options for basic science research, educational courses, and clinical research during the research year. The research year can be tailored to a fellow’s interests and future career plans. The research year is protected from clinical duties and no call is required. Fellows are not expected to find any salary funding for the research year. All fellows have produced multiple publications and abstract presentations from work performed in the fellowship.

Basic Science Research

The Division of Pediatric Urology includes the John Duckett Pediatric Urology Laboratory; this endowed research laboratory focuses upon human subjects genetic studies and genetically engineered mutant mouse models of pediatric urologic birth defects and diseases. The lab is involved in multiple collaborative efforts within the UT Southwestern system, home to more Nobel Laureates than any other U.S. medical school. Cutting-edge genomic research is performed, employing comparative genomic hybridization, SNP microarrays, whole exome sequencing, and other technologies to identify genetic causes of pediatric urologic disorders.

Educational Courses

Our Fellows can audit or take didactic courses for credit toward a certificate or master’s degree taught by faculty of the top-ranked Center for Translational Medicine and Department of Clinical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center. This coursework gives training in clinical research design and analysis, protocol design, epidemiology, outcomes research, the development and validation of research tools, biostatistics, and grant writing and is truly an outstanding educational opportunity for our fellows to better our specialty of pediatric urology as a whole.

Clinical Research

More than 40 IRB-approved study protocols are underway, covering essentially every topic in pediatric urology via prospective or retrospective designs. Currently, we are performing a large NIH-funded human clinical trial evaluating near infrared spectroscopy for pediatric acute scrotum and testicular torsion (NIH DK092654; Baker, PI). We have two research coordinators exclusively dedicated to our pediatric urology studies. Thus, the infrastructure for a very productive year in research exists. In addition, all fellows are invited to travel to both the American Urological Association spring meeting and the Pediatric Urology Fall Congress during both years of their fellowship.

Clinical Program (Year 2)

Every aspect of Pediatric Urology is found in our clinical program including complex open urinary tract reconstruction, robotic and laparoscopic surgery, stone disease management, complex hypospadias surgery, disorders of sexual development management, and vaginal reconstruction. Fellows obtain ample experience in rare and complex reconstruction as well as “bread and butter” pediatric urology for a very well-rounded clinical experience.

Fellows are expected to be the leader of a clinical trainee team that includes a third-year and a fourth-year urology resident from UTSW as well as any rotating UTSW or visiting medical students. On-call time is one weekday a week and one weekend a month. All call is back-up call to a third- or fourth-year UTSW urology resident.

Clinical Facilities

Children's Medical Center Dallas is one of the nation’s largest children’s hospitals (407 beds; 112 ICU beds; 32 operating rooms – 24 inpatient and eight outpatient) and is connected to the busiest neonatal and obstetric unit in the U.S., Parkland Memorial Hospital. In addition to the main Children’s campus, we use Children’s Legacy Plano (a smaller inpatient hospital where ambulatory surgeries are performed), and have six sites for outpatient clinics.

With a population of about 7 million in the DFW metroplex and a catchment area including all of North Texas and some adjacent states, the case volume and complexity is high. Our group sees more than 9,500 children in outpatient clinic visits and performs about 1,825 operations per year including some of the highest numbers of robotic surgeries in the country for a pediatric urology program.

Our fellowship provides intensive experience in neurogenic bladder management and reconstruction via our services at Scottish Rite for Children. Every Tuesday afternoon, there is a clinic at Scottish Rite for Children that is staffed by our faculty and dedicated to the urologic care of children with spina bifida and other causes of neurogenic bladder. Annually we provide pediatric urology care for more than 700 spina bifida or spinal cord injury urologic patients at Scottish Rite for Children, which is one of the largest SB/SCI programs in the U.S.

Clinical Programs

The Pediatric Urology Program provides care for many complex patients and has the following specialty programs:

  • Center for Comprehensive Stone Disease
  • Center for Spina Bifida
  • Center for Exstrophy/Cloaca/GU Sinus/Other Rare Genitourinary Birth Defects
  • Center for Disorders of Sexual Development
  • Center for Multidisciplinary Prenatal Care
  • Center for Hypospadias and Penile Reconstructive Surgery
  • Center for Vaginal Reconstruction and Female Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgery
  • Center for Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery
  • Center for Voiding Dysfunction

Conferences

The Pediatric Urology Program includes two weekly conferences, the preoperative conference and a weekly rotating conference.

  • Weekly preoperative conference (1 hour)
  • Rotating weekly conferences (1 hour)
  • Disorders of Sex Development
  • Radiology
  • Tumor Board/ Multidisciplinary Oncology conference
  • Pathology
  • Morbidity and Mortality
  • Journal Club
  • Nephrology/Transplant
  • Research Meeting

Pediatric Urology Faculty

Our pediatric urology faculty consists of seven fellowship-trained pediatric urologists and three pediatric urology nurse practitioners.