Sleep Surgery Fellowship
Fellowship Director: Eric Kezirian, MD, MPH
Overview
The one-year Sleep Surgery fellowship will provide advanced subspecialty training in the surgical evaluation and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. Our sleep surgery team provides internationally-recognized expertise in sleep surgery.
The fellowship provides a foundation in sleep medicine and surgery, encompassing a wide array of surgical procedures. At the same time, there is sufficient flexibility to tailor the training program to a fellow’s interests and strengths. Our goal is to train the next generation of leaders in the field. The program aims to ensure the fellow is well-prepared as independent academic sleep surgeon within a tertiary care center, receiving referrals from other otolaryngologists who may not have this kind of specific training in sleep surgery.
Clinical Care
Formal, didactic training will include numerous lectures on core topics in sleep surgery related to evaluation and surgical treatment. The schedule will start with foundational topics related to surgical evaluation, decision making, and techniques but allow clinical care and fellow interest to guide further didactic training in sleep surgery within a 1:1 tutorial format. Fellows will attend the didactic program for the separate sleep medicine fellowship program at UCLA. Informal training will occur during patient care. The sleep surgery fellow will care for sleep surgery patients throughout the fellowship year, making the gradual transition from direct oversight to independence. The fellow will spend the majority of their time with Dr. Kezirian but will also work with Ashley Kita, MD and Travis Shiba, MD. Performance of surgical cases will follow this same pathway. Finally, we have true experts across all disciplines involved in sleep care: sleep medicine, sleep neurology, sleep psychiatry, sleep dentistry, and oral and maxillofacial surgery; the fellow would be able to spend time with providers from all of these teams.
Research
Training in clinical and translational research methods will occur within a tutorial format modeled on a clinical research training course that Dr. Kezirian developed previously. This will provide the foundation for the fellow to develop at least one hypothesis-based scientific investigation that they will complete during the academic year as well as a research protocol that may serve as the foundation of future scientific endeavors.
The Sleep Surgery fellowship is separate from the UCLA Sleep Medicine fellowship, and both fellowships do accept surgeons. The Sleep Surgery fellowship is focused on sleep surgery instead of Sleep Medicine, whereas the Sleep Medicine fellowship has less opportunity for surgical exposure but does meet the requirements for Board examination in Sleep Medicine.
Application Information
Applicants must be physicians who have completed an accredited otolaryngology - head and neck surgery residency in the United States. Trainees must be board-eligible, or board certified in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery. A valid California medical license is required at the start of the fellowship.
Please send a curriculum vitae and letter of interest to:
Eric Kezirian, MD, MPH
Email: [email protected]