Our Commitment
Our Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Fellowship is expanding its ability to mentor fellows in academic global newborn health projects and research.
Mentorship
Fellows will be primarily mentored by Danielle Ehret, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Vermont Larner COM and Director of Global Health at Vermont Oxford Network (VON), in addition to multi-disciplinary colleagues throughout the institution and field as appropriate to the fellow’s dedicated area of research interest. Dr. Ehret is the principal investigator for VON’s Global Neonatal Database and working in partnership with colleagues in Ethiopia to lead the Ethiopian Neonatal Network, the first low-income country neonatal database for quality improvement and advocacy. Dr. Ehret has collaborated with Dr. Asrat Demtse, neonatologist and Director of the NICU at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to develop the first Masters in Neonatal Nursing program in Ethiopia. Dr. Ehret leads and serves on numerous national and international committees focused on global newborn health, and is currently serving as the North American representative in the first cohort of fourteen international leaders in the International Pediatric Association’s Child Health Emerging Leaders Program.
Three Pathways
Fellows may pursue one of three existing pathways for career development: research scholar pathway, quality improvement pathway, or clinician educator pathway with global newborn health as the dedicated area of focus. In addition to a focus on global newborn health for the main academic product of fellowship, all fellows at UVM conduct a mentored systematic review published through the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group and work closely with the fellowship’s Director of Research and Editor of Cochrane Neonatal Review Group, Dr. Roger Soll. Fellows distinguishing themselves as concentrating in global newborn health will select a topic that contributes to this dynamic field.
One Fellow's Success
Our first fellow to pursue a concentration in global newborn health, Dr. Delia Horn, has been successful in her fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Ehret, and in collaboration with Dr. Kristen DeStigter, Chair of Radiology at UVM Larner COM and President and Co-Founder of Imaging the World, an NGO registered in Uganda dedicated to integrating low-cost ultrasound programs into remote health care facilities in resource-limited countries. Dr. Horn has been recognized for her work by receiving the AAP Section on Neonatal Perinatal Medicine’s (SoNPM) 2019 Marshall Klaus Health Services Research Award for her project entitled, “Association between antenatal ultrasound findings and neonatal outcomes in rural Uganda”, the 2018 VON and AAP SoNPM Helping Babies Breathe Co-facilitator Scholarship, has a protocol published for her Cochrane systematic review, “Sunlight for the prevention and treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in term and late preterm neonates” and is serving on national committees focused on global newborn health.