Program Overview

Obstetric Anesthesia Fellowship

The Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Miami offers a one-year, ACGME-accredited fellowship in Obstetrical Anesthesia. The Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship combines advanced clinical training with the opportunity to engage in research and education.

Program Overview

The acuity and depth of clinical exposure invariably meet our clinical education goals, and a carefully tailored lecture curriculum solidifies our education mission. Our fellows benefit from exposure to over 4,000 deliveries annually, ranging from low-risk to high-risk referral cases for maternal cardiopulmonary disease, abnormal placentation, and other complicated maternofetal conditions.

Clinical Training

The fellow will receive hands-on teaching in state-of-the-art technologies, including advanced labor and cesarean analgesic techniques, ultrasound-guided neuraxial anesthetic techniques, and transthoracic echocardiography.

Research and Education

The fellow will participate in at least one primary research project and one quality improvement project, with mentorship and guidance from experienced obstetric anesthesia researchers within our group. The fellows will present at a major anesthesia or subspecialty meeting, including the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology and the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Faculty

The division of OB Anesthesiology is an integral part of the multidisciplinary peripartum care team, and our fellows serve as leaders within the division. The faculty includes:

• Paloma Toledo, M.D., MPH, Professor, Clinical Anesthesiology, Chief, obstetric and gynecological anesthesia
• Daria Moaveni, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
• Reine Zbeidy, M.D., Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Director
• Selina Patel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
• Eric Harris, M.D., MBA, Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology

Fellowship Curriculum

Clinical Rotations

• Labor and Delivery: The fellow’s responsibilities include direct patient care for low and high-risk deliveries and other procedures, orientation and teaching of residents, primary management of high-risk patients, and attendance at multidisciplinary rounds.
• Research: Research is ongoing and combined with the labor and delivery rotations.
• Maternal Fetal Medicine: The fellow joins the Maternal Fetal Medicine service as a team member for two weeks.
• Neonatal Intensive Care: The fellow works with the neonatal team for two weeks.
• Transthoracic Echo and Point of Care Ultrasound: The fellow undergoes a practical training course performing transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) under direct supervision of certified faculty.

Didactic Curriculum

• Weekly multidisciplinary lectures
• Routine Simulation sessions
• Routine PBLD

Fellows

• Alexander Hall, M.D., University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School
• Connor Funsch, M.D.
• Past Fellows:
  • Lorena Nunez
  • Thais Dos Santos Franklin
  • Natalia Torres Buendia
  • Rofayda Yasser

Research

Recent peer-reviewed publications include:

• Expanding Horizons: How Anesthesiologists Can Improve Health Equity
• Maternal Critical Care: The Story Behind the Numbers
• Peripartum neurological complications: implications and management
• Can Noninferior be Superior?
• Peripartum racial/ethnic disparities
• Prophylactic Intrathecal Morphine and Prevention of Post-Dural Puncture Headache: A Randomized Double-blind Trial
• Women and Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Anesthesiology
• Conflict Is in the Eye of the Beholder
• Status of Women in Academic Anesthesiology: A 10-Year Update
• The Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology Consensus Statement on the Anesthetic Management of Pregnant and Postpartum Women Receiving Thromboprophylaxis or Higher Dose Anticoagulants
• Effects of State Law Limiting Postoperative Opioid Prescription in Patients After Cesarean Delivery
• Transversus abdominis plane block compared with wound infiltration for postoperative analgesia following Cesarean delivery: a systematic review and network meta-analysis
• Occurrence and outcome of blood-contaminated percutaneous injuries among anesthesia practitioners: a cross-sectional study
• Facial Pressure Ulcers: Unsightly Complication of Prone Positioning
• Strategies for improving Anesthesia Ready Time in the Obstetric Operating Room
• Anaesthetic management of a parturient with spondylothoracic dysostosis
• Transient phlebitis: an unusual effect of intravenous diphenhydramine
• Perioperative Management and Preemptive ECMO Cannulation of a Parturient with Cystic Fibrosis Undergoing Cesarean Delivery
• Anesthetic Considerations for the Parturient After Solid Organ Transplantation

Ongoing IRB trials include:

• Patient satisfaction, resident physician confidence, and operative room efficiency after preoperative spinal ultrasound before combined spinal epidural in elective cesarean deliveries: a prospective, quality improvement study
• Anxiolysis before cesarean delivery

The fellowship equips its graduates for a variety of careers, including academic or private practice, with the ability to act as a consultant in obstetric anesthesiology. The program participates in the SF Match process.