Pediatric Otolaryngology

Program Director

Program Contact:		Kate Dunsky, MD Pediatric Otolaryngology One Children’s Place, Suite 3S35 St. Louis, MO  63110
Physical Address:		St. Louis Children’s Hospital  One Children’s Place St. Louis, MO  63110 Phone: (314) 454-4033 Fax: (314) 454-2174
Program E-mail:		mailto:katedunsky@wustl.edu
Program Duration:		This is a one year program, July 1-June 30

Prerequisite Training/Selection Criteria

The following are required for applicants to be eligible to start full duties on July 1:

• A medical degree from an accredited institution
• A physician’s license from the Missouri State Board of Healing Arts, BNDD, and DEA.
• Attain hospital privileges at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
• Attain Medicaid provider numbers.
• Graduation from a US ACGME-accredited otolaryngology residency program.
• Three letters of reference — at least two from faculty members of the training program of origin, one of whom is the program chair — provided to the preceptors of the fellowship
• A visit to the program site, and interview.
• Participation in the SFMatch centralized application process and match.

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Goals and Objectives for Training

The broad educational purpose of this fellowship program is to graduate pediatric otolaryngologists who have superior proficiency in all aspects of otolaryngology care and treatment in pediatric patients.

The fellow will be seeing patients in the St. Louis Children’s hospital clinic along with an attending physician. The fellow will be responsible for evaluating patients and presenting them to the attending physician with a proposed treatment plan. The fellow will learn specific skills such as surgical counseling, informed consent, and practice management. The fellow will participate primarily as first assistant on minor procedures performed in the office setting. The fellow will serve as a first contact along with residents for all emergency room or inpatient consults. The fellow will assist in the operating room on selected cases with various attending physicians to ensure a well-rounded surgical education.  This experience will allow the fellow to see patients post-operatively and follow their progress and learn the skills necessary to manage postoperative patients. The fellow will primarily serve as a junior faculty member.

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Teaching Staff

Kate Dunsky, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, graduated from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, completed an Otolaryngology-HNS residency at Baylor College of Medicine, and completed her fellowship program at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Dunsky will be responsible for mentoring of the fellow’s skill and competency as the fellow operates or is in clinic. Dr. Dunsky will ensure that appropriate progress is being made in skill acquisition, advising the fellow on what aspects may need strengthening. Dr. Dunsky also tracks the number of procedures performed with or by the fellow to ensure he/she gains adequate experience.

The fellow will rotate with each attending physician in clinic and the operating room. Each week the fellow will assess the clinic volumes and caseload to see which physician’s service he/she will be on. This schedule is also influenced by any rare or complicated surgical procedures that may provide a valuable learning experience for the fellow.

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Facilities

Training occurs at St. Louis Children’s Hospital as well as the Children’s Specialty Care Center. 

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Educational Program/Basic Curriculum/Clinical and Research Components

The fellow will see patients in the office with each of our attending physicians. The fellow will have the opportunity to operate with each physician on their surgical cases. The operative experience is a graduated experience with opportunities for primary responsibility on surgical cases as the fellow progresses.  

Fellows are encouraged to spend time with audiologists, speech therapists, oral surgeons and plastic surgeons within the hospital and community (multiple established opportunities exist at the university). This will be emphasized during the Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team clinic that is held weekly. This clinic consists of providers from various departments coordinating care on patients that need treatment from multiple providers.

The fellow will be responsible for back-up call when a 2^nd year resident is on primary call over the weekend.

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Evaluation

Fellows are evaluated informally on an ongoing basis with regular feedback. There will be quarterly formal evaluations. This will consist of a global evaluation form completed by each attending physician, as well as a self-evaluation completed by the fellow. These will be discussed along with milestone completion during the quarterly meeting with Dr. Dunsky.