Rhinology

A one-year, TMB accredited Rhinology fellowship program is available every year through the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. This focused educational experience is for individuals who have completed an Otolaryngology residency and wish to pursue advanced training in the medical and surgical management of sinonasal disease. Approximately 20% of the fellow's time will be devoted to research and scholarly activity. This fellowship will prepare the fellow for a successful practice dedicated to the medical and surgical management of rhinology problems, but will also equip the fellow with tools and techniques for clinical research and scholarly productivity.

The fellow is given increasing responsibility in a progressive fashion as they are observed to be prepared to accept additional responsibility over the one-year period of their training. The fellow is expected to report any significant events or problems to the faculty. The general fellow responsibilities will include the daily evaluation of patients, the evaluation of laboratory and imaging information, interaction with the patient and the patient’s family and the supervision of residents on the service. In the operating room, the fellow may participate in complex procedures, always under the supervision of the faculty who is involved and responsible. Over the year of Rhinology fellowship, fellows are offered progressively increasing responsibility and participation in surgical procedures based upon their performance. Faculty on the service will be in the operating room for every operation performed by a fellow and the decisions for delegating aspects of an operative procedure will be made by the faculty. The fellow may also participate in relatively less complex operative procedures along with the residents and serve as instructors and teachers of residents with the faculty present to assure quality of care.

The fellow will be expected to round on rhinology and skull base surgical patients daily while they are inpatient and co-manage the patients with the residents who are on service. The fellow will rotate with the three rhinology staff spending time with each in both the operating room and ambulatory clinic. A rhinology specific fellow clinic will take place once a week corresponding with a time that one of the rhinology faculty is also in clinic. The fellow will be responsible for surgical care of patients evaluated in the fellow clinic under faculty supervision. The fellow will be expected to take faculty call, which in our practice will equate to about 2 weeks for the entire year. If the fellow is available, they may be contacted about operative consults that come in when a non-rhinology faculty member is on call and require rhinology faculty involvement.

The fellow will play an integral role in teaching residents through lectures as well as taking them through surgical cases. In addition, they will run the list of inpatients with the residents and assist in assessment and management of inpatients and consults.