Hemostasis-Thrombosis Fellowship Curriculum

The Hemostasis-Thrombosis Fellowship curriculum is somewhat flexible in order to accommodate the unique learning needs of the matriculated fellowship applicant, which may be dependent on their ultimate career goals and/or designed to build upon their past experiences.  For instance, general hematology/oncology/BMT fellows at ACGME accredited programs in the US are expected to complete a scholarly research product suitable for publication in order to become sub-specialty board eligible.  If the matriculating fellow conducted such a project on a hemostasis-thrombosis topic, they may wish to build upon that research program during their hemostasis-thrombosis year – facilitating their likelihood of successfully obtaining extramural funding with a mentored research career development award at the end of the fellowship/ beginning as junior faculty.  However, several minimum expectations follow (weighted toward outpatient experience to reflect the outpatient:inpatient ratio of hemostasis-thrombosis care delivery in the modern era):

  • Conduct a weekly, half-day, continuity clinic alongside a designated hemostasis-thrombosis faculty preceptor.

  • Eight weeks of hematology service:

    • Service will help to attain adequate competencies in common inpatient hemostasis-thrombosis clinical scenarios

    • May be divided into blocks of no less than 2 weeks’ duration

  • Twelve weeks of Hemostasis-Thrombosis Clinic rotation:

    • To gain adequate competencies in specialized hemostasis-thrombosis problems

    • During this rotation the fellow will attend each hemostasis-thrombosis specialty clinic:

      • Hemophilia

      • Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

      • Stroke

      • Hematology-Immunology-Lymphoproliferative Problems

      • General continuity clinics conducted by the hemostasis-thrombosis faculty

    • May be divided into blocks of no less than 4 weeks’ duration

  • Four weeks Elective experience:

    • Choices include:

      • Hemostasis Clinical Laboratory

      • Transfusion Medicine

      • Vascular Medicine

      • Neuroimaging

      • Vascular Imaging

      • Cardiovascular

      • Adult Hemophilia

      • Adult Thrombosis

    • These experiences may be arranged through existing programs at Nationwide Children's or The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center or may be arranged as an ‘away’ rotation at another institution (with approval of the Fellowship Director)

    • For fellows who desire a clinical track career and/or have demonstrated exceptional research project progress, they may opt for up to 8 weeks of additional elective experience (see below).

  • Twenty-three weeks of Protected Research Time to conduct a research project. 

    • Within the limitations of a 1-year fellowship, fellows will be expected to conduct a secondary database, retrospective, or limited translational science research project and prepare it for presentation at a national meeting during their fellowship year

    • Due to the rarity of childhood stroke and the rarity of ventricular assist device use in children, fellow’s will be expected to take 24/7 stroke/VAD call during their Protected Research Time   

      • They will thus be given ample opportunity to participate in the care of these children during their acute illness

      • This is expected to be no more than 1-2 patients at any given time and should not infringe significantly upon their research endeavors

    • Additional Electives choices would be subtracted from this research time, thus evidence of adequate research progress must be demonstrated to gain fellowship director approval for any additional electives

    • Vacation (PTO) time will be approved only during research blocks.

  • Actively participate in ‘Blood Club'

    • The Blood Club is the division’s venue for non-malignant hematology clinical research. 

    • The group meets formally every other week and utilizes a rotating theme that includes: open clinical research project status review, rapid-fire journal club, protocol feasibility and training, and research in progress updates.  Thus, each theme is covered on an 8 week rotation.

    • Additionally, the group meets 6 times each year for a comprehensive journal club discussion. 

    • The group is made up of faculty and supportive services (nursing, physical therapy, psychosocial services, etc.) who all share a common interest in non-malignant blood disorders, including hemostasis-thrombosis.

  • Directed readings:

    • A collection of key ‘benchmark’ manuscripts in the field of pediatric hemostasis-thrombosis are maintained by the faculty. 

    • Fellows will be expected to read one of these manuscripts each week as a directed reading and discuss the manuscript with one of the faculty members to round out their understanding of the topic.

  • Presentations:

    • One of the tried and true methods of learning is to teach a subject.  Thus, each fellow will be expected to develop and deliver a comprehensive review on a topic of their choice to the faculty and any rotating trainees twice during the year.

  • Quality Improvement:

    • Per Nationwide Children's policy, fellows will complete the 2 hours of mandated core content didactic training in Quality Improvement and will demonstrate active participation in an ongoing hematology specific QI project of their choice.