III. The Division Chief as a Director of Fellowship Training

Abstract

One of the most important responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities for the academic division chief is the supervision of postdoctorate fellowship education and training. This responsibility carries a tremendous personal obligation to provide a high-quality education and productive experience to highly committed and outstanding pediatricians who wish to pursue an academic subspecialty career. Without exaggeration, one can state that the quality of the fellowship experience may be one of the most important extrinsic factors that determine an individual's long-term academic success. On a more global perspective, successful fellowship training programs determine the survival and quality of academic subspecialties. The quality and structure of an individual fellowship program often is determined by the motivation for developing the fellowship training program itself. For this reason, I will initiate my discussion from the viewpoint of a subspecialist who is considering preparing an application for accreditation of a fellowship program. FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS AND PEDIATRIC SUBSPECIALTIES