Curriculum - Pediatric Rehabilitation Fellowship

Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit and Consults

Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (IRU) is an 12-bed CARF accredited unit located on the 12th floor of the West Tower Bldg. of Texas Children’s Hospital, providing state-of-the-art comprehensive rehabilitation program to help improve function and outcomes.

A robust and busy inpatient rehabilitation consult service at TCH to assist our colleagues in the evaluation and management of post-acute care rehabilitation needs

Outpatient Rehabilitation and Multidisciplinary Clinics

• Cerebral Palsy (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Spasticity Clinics (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Spina Bifida Clinic (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Muscular Dystrophy Clinic (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Brachial Plexus Injury and Peripheral Nerve Clinic (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Limb Deficiency Clinic (Multidisciplinary Clinic)
• Spinal Cord Injury Clinic
• Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic
• Neuro-oncology Clinic (Multidisciplinary)
• Angelman’s Syndrome Clinic (Multidisciplinary)
• Gait and motion analysis Lab (TCH Woodlands Hospital)
• PRM Fellow Continuity Clinic (each 2nd and 4th Friday of the month except for months the fellow is on inpatient or consult service)
• General Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine Clinic
• PRM Procedures: Chemodenervation with botulinum toxin and phenol, Electrodiagnosis, Intrathecal Baclofen pump management

Enhanced learning experience through collaboration with other specialties that PM&R closely work with: Complex Care clinic, Developmental Pediatrics and Psychology, Neurology, Rheumatology, Pain Service, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.

All calls are home-based except for weekend in-house rounding on inpatients and consults. The fellow will rotate in the call schedule with the core program PM&R residents on rotation. Call is taken on monthly blocks, with the average frequency being one week out of every four, typically when the fellow is on Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine rotation (both inpatient and outpatient blocks). The fellow will always have attending physician back-up when they take call. Calls average about 6-8 weeks per year, per fellow.

Fellows are required to participate in formal scholarly activities. This can include development of an original research project. The fellow is encouraged to design, implement, analyze and prepare for publication, an original research project during the two-year fellowship.  

There is dedicated research time and a research mentor is assigned/arranged based upon the fellow’s specific research interests. The fellow is also required to complete at least one quality improvement project throughout the fellowship program.  

At the beginning of the year, the fellow may opt to enroll in a course entitled “Fundamentals of Clinical Investigation”, which is offered through the BCM Clinical Scientist Training Program every August. This is a 16-evening course that will also include basic biostatistics. There are also lectures through the Fellows’ College at TCH, that the PRM fellows will be highly encouraged to attend.