Academic Curriculum

Our curriculum provides a broad range of didactic and experiential learning opportunities to prepare our fellows for an academic career in adolescent medicine

Academic morning

The Adolescent Medicine Fellowship has an academic morning once per week. This dedicated learning time includes a review of clinical foundations of adolescent medicine, a division business operations meeting, and research methods.

Clinical Foundations of Adolescent Medicine

This is an hour and a half didactic session designed to cover the core topics on the Adolescent Medicine Board Content Specifications. Teaching is provided by staff, fellows, and subject matter experts from other divisions of Children’s Mercy, supplemented by directed readings. As fellows progress through fellowship, they take on more responsibility for the content and format of the didactic sessions.

Additionally, fellows and staff participate in case conferences during this time, presenting interesting and challenging cases from recent clinical encounters to allow for feedback and discussion on clinical evaluation and management plans.

Business Operations

The Adolescent Medicine Division Head conducts a monthly business meeting with Adolescent Medicine staff, fellows, and select members of the clinic support staff. During this meeting, the Division Head discusses the operational status of the clinic, new initiatives for the division or hospital, and provider concerns. This exposes our fellows to financial planning, clinic management, and billing for patient care, so they are prepared for independent practice after completing fellowship.

Research Methods

A bi-monthly journal club provides protected time to review and critique articles on recent advancements in adolescent medicine. There is also protected time to discuss and receive feedback on ongoing research projects, as well as practice upcoming research presentations.

Fellowship Common Curriculum

The Children’s Mercy Department of Graduate Medical Education provides a core curriculum consisting of monthly one-hour didactic sessions to first-year fellows focused on the ACGME Competencies in Professionalism, Communication, and Systems-Based Practice.

In addition to the common core curriculum, there is a Problem Solving for Fellows experience which pairs each fellow with a coach who helps guide the fellow through a quality improvement project.

Finally, there is a biostatistics course designed specifically for fellows that includes lectures on statistical principles and practice using SPSS statistical software.

Click here for more information about the Common Curriculum. 

Faculty and Fellow Development Micro-sessions

Children’s Mercy offers various faculty and fellow development opportunities focused on areas of research and education. Topics covered include academic e-portfolios, academic writing, teaching in academic medicine, presenting scientific research, providing feedback, and transitioning to faculty.

Psychology Didactics

The first-year fellow attends this didactic series once per week along with psychology interns, psychology fellows, and fellows from Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. These sessions are an opportunity for staff psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals from within and outside Children’s Mercy to discuss a broad variety of theoretical orientations, assessment techniques, and interventions. Topics include empirically validated treatments, issues in assessment, conversion disorder, psychopharmacology, functional behavioral analysis, management of obesity, phenotypic expressions of genetic disorders, management of chronic pain, adolescent substance abuse, setting limits with teens, gay/lesbian/bisexuality issues, diabetes management, traumatic brain injury, and biofeedback.

View other GME or hospital conferences.