Developmental Pediatrics

Program Director
Dr. W. Ben Gibbard
Alberta Children's Hospital
2888 Shaganappi Trail NW
Calgary  AB  T3B 6A8
Phone: (404) 955-2481
Fax: (403) 955-2922
e-mail: ben.gibbard@albertahealthservices.ca

Division Head: Dr. Jean-Francois Lemay
e-mail: jflemay@albertahealthservices.ca

Program Administrator: Anny Neisz
e-mail: anny.neisz@albertahealthservices.ca 

Prerequisite
Candidates must have successfully completed at least three years of training in a Canadian Pediatric Residency Training Program.

Program Outline
The University of Calgary offers a two-year training program in Developmental Pediatrics accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The program is designed for 1-2 residents per year.

The training program's goal is the development of trainees with excellent clinical skills in an atmosphere of academic inquiry.

Formal teaching sessions (4 hours per month) are listed below. These sessions are held specifically for the residents in Developmental Pediatrics. 100% attendance is expected as the schedule is set to meet resident and faculty availability.

Each month, the topics will be divided as follows:

• 1 hour journal club
• 1 hour topic review
  • Normal development and behavior
  • Developmental disorders
  • Ethical issues in Developmental Pediatrics
  • Impact of acute and chronic medical illness on child development
  • Psychiatric co-morbidity in children with developmental disorder
  • Pharmacology
  • Neurobiology
  • Multidisciplinary assessments and interventions
  • Clinical Skills
• 1 hour patient management discussion
• 1 hour open - topic and format selected by resident

Rotations

• General Developmental Pediatrics - 6 blocks
• Developmental Pediatrics, subspecialty focus (multidisciplinary clinic groupings) - 3 blocks
• Developmental pediatrics, outreach component - 3 blocks
• Medical genetics - 1 block
• Neurology - 1 block
• Psychiatry - 1 block
• Research - 3 blocks
• Electives - 6 blocks

Seminars and Rounds
Monthly Division Rounds (Royal College Accredited): Topics for these sessions are selected by the Division's educational planning committee. They are available by telehealth at a number of sites in Southern Alberta. Residents are expected to present a topic of their choice once per year (minimum). Residents are expected to attend 80% of these sessions.

Brown Bag Lunch: These are informal case discussions or topic reviews held every two weeks at the Developmental Clinic. Multidisciplinary team members (including attending physicians) alternate presentations of challenging cases, topic updates, patient questions, etc. Residents are expected to attend and contribute to these sessions during rotations in Developmental Pediatrics.

Weekly rounds within the Department of Pediatrics include Pediatric Grand Rounds, and rounds within various related disciplines including Neurology, Psychiatry, Genetics, Perinatal Follow-up, etc.  Residents are expected to view the schedules and choose rounds of relevance to their program. Residents are expected to attend approximately 50% of these activities (one per week overall).

Research
The Resident Research Course is sponsored by the Department of Pediatrics and is open to all pediatric residents and fellows. It is a month-long course primarily focusing on research methodology. Residents in Developmental Pediatrics are encouraged to participate, as all residents must complete a research project during their program. The Resident Research Course may be counted as one of the three mandatory blocks of research in the program.

Residents who proceed with a Master's degree are not required to complete the Resident Research Course, as they will cover research methodology as a component of their graduate studies. All residents are expected to participate in the Child Health Research Symposium which occurs annually at the University of Calgary. Residents will be expected to present their research projects in this forum if not submitted elsewhere for publication or presentation. Residents are encouraged to present their research at the national/international level.

Resident Teaching
The resident will also be expected to participate in our undergraduate medical school teaching activities.

Clinical Resources
The University of Calgary and Calgary Health Region opened the Child Development Center adjacent to the Alberta Children's Hospital in October 2007.

Clinical work will be primarily conducted within the Alberta Children's Hospital and the Child Development Center. In addition to the Developmental Clinic, other clinic groupings include several multidisciplinary clinic settings addressing needs of specific patient groups such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome, Neuromotor, and Tourette Disorder Clinics. Community programs such as Early Intervention Programs are utilized, and residents will also participate in school-based and rural outreach programs.