Urology fellowship program

Children's Wisconsin two-year urology fellowship is structured to provide fellows with a rich training experience and prepare trainees for careers in academic pediatric urology. Our goal is to provide our graduates with the requisite skills to perform the full spectrum of pediatric urological care and surgery. In addition, the fellow will have an opportunity to take graduate level classes the second year to enhance their skill set required to engage in meaningful and valid clinical research and outcomes. Fellows are also encouraged to engage in clinical and/or basic science research.

Mission statement

The mission of the Medical College of Wisconsin Pediatric Urology Fellowship Program is to provide each trainee with clinical, surgical, research, teaching and administrative skills to provide outstanding medical and surgical management of pediatric patients with complex urologic problems. This is done through training our house staff with an emphasis on compassion for patients and providing cost-effective care. Our program supports a diverse and innovative culture for all faculty, house staff, and administrative personnel.

Program aims

The Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals aims to:

• Train pediatric urology fellows in clinical and academic pediatric urology.
• Prepare fellows for productive futures in pediatric urology practice.
• Prepare and provide fellows with resources to conduct basic science and translational research.

Overall program goals and objectives:

• Education - Educational activities of the fellowship program will instruct the trainee in the assessment and management of pediatric urologic disease.
• Clinical Care - Clinical activities focus on secondary and tertiary care and will provide the trainee with a broad experience preparing them for the practice of pediatric urology.
• Research - The fellow will develop and engage in an independent basic science research project or detailed original clinical study as delineated by the program, the principle investigator, and the fellow during the second year of fellowship.
• Teaching Objectives - Humanistic and professional attitudes: To foster development in each trainee of positive humanistic and professional attitudes as essential ingredients of excellence in patient care.
• Technical skills - To assure acquisition by each trainee of appropriate technical skills and an appreciation of surgical anatomy and physiology.

First year fellows

First year fellows of our two-year Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program develop a strong clinical and operative foundation. The first year is dedicated to developing a clinical skill set for the evaluation, management and post operative care of the full spectrum of pediatric urological problems. The team consists of the fellow, a fourth year and second year urology resident and typically one or more medical students. Surgical experience is gained both in the hospital setting as well as at an outpatient surgery center. Daily duties include inpatient rounds, consults, outpatient visits OR coverage and ambulatory clinics. The fellow is in the clinic one day of the week. See MCWAH Benefits, Conditions & Terms of Employment for information regarding vacations, leaves, insurance, stipends, and professional liability.

Second year fellows

Second year fellows continue to refine clinical and surgical practices under the preceptorship of our faculty. The majority of time will be spent in academic pursuits and research. This will include taking post graduate classes at the Medical College of Wisconsin geared towards clinical academic training and preparation of manuscripts with the intent to publish. We have research coordinators who assist in our academic efforts.

Department of Urology

The department of urology at Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to the classic academic missions of clinical care, teaching and research. Urology boasts eighteen fellowship-trained physicians with specialty expertise in care across a spectrum of urologic disease processes. Our teaching and research activities are designed to both complement and support our clinical service mission. As an ACGME accredited residency and fellowship program, we are ensuring future generations will have access to qualified urologic specialists. The department of urology also has a research program encompassing both clinical and basic research, taking a disease focused and translational approach to research activities.

Clinical experience

* COVID pandemic year reduced volumes

Pediatric urology team

Faculty

• Jonathan Ellison, MD
• Travis W. Groth, MD
• John V. Kryger, MD (Section Chief)
• Elizabeth Roth, MD

Advanced Practice Providers

• Matthew Armstrong, APNP
• Katherine Aussem, APNP
• Coleen Rosen, DNP, APNP
• Heidi Vanderpool, APNP

Current research/quality improvement initiatives

• Learn more about clinical trials.

Locations

Our main pediatric urology clinic is located at Children's Wisconsin (Milwaukee). Clinics are held Monday through Friday by faculty and nurse practitioners. In 2019, 10,400 patients were seen, with 6,600 at our Milwaukee clinic (Fellows will not travel to the other four satellite clinics.)

Pediatric urology also participates twice a month in a spina bifida clinic. A full complement of specialty services attends including neurosurgery, orthopedics, and physical medicine and rehabilitation in addition to appropriate ancillary services. Approximately 300 patients are treated in this clinic.

Our group also participates in a Disorders of Sexual Differentiation multidisciplinary clinic, as well as a Fetal Concerns Clinic. Pediatric Urology at Children's Wisconsin also is a participant in the Multi Institutional Bladder Exstrophy Consortium (MIBEC). This destination program is in collaboration with Boston Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with the goal of transforming the care for children born with bladder exstrophy. Children's Wisconsin is a center of excellence designated by the Association for the Bladder Exstrophy Community (ABEC).

Pediatric urology offers clinics at eight locations:

• Milwaukee
• Appleton
• Delafield
• East De Pere
• Kenosha
• Mequon
• New Berlin

Children's Wisconsin

Children's has one of the busiest pediatric hospitals in the country. It is a Level I Trauma Center and houses 13 inpatient units including a 72-bed pediatric intensive care unit, a 70-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and an eight-bed Level IV Epilepsy Monitoring unit.

We are in the Bladder Exstrophy Consortium along with Boston Children's Wisconsin and Children's Wisconsin of Philadelphia and draw upon the expertise of Dr. Michael Mitchell, Professor Emeritus at our institution. Exstrophy cases are performed collaboratively among the three institutions to standardize techniques, develop best practices and carefully monitor outcomes. And we are also doing this in a cost conscious fashion to achieve the value equation, value = quality/expense.

Our experienced faculty and nurse practitioners provide a full spectrum of pediatric urological care. We have an active minimally invasive robotics and laparoscopic program as well as multidisciplinary teams for spina bifida, disorders of sexual differentiation and prenatal care. 

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has approximately 1,650 full-time and part-time faculty, 725 Advanced Practice Providers and approximately 6,400 full-time employees. More than 1,500 physicians from the community serve as volunteer faculty. The Medical College is the seventh largest private employer in metro Milwaukee and has approximately 18,700 alumni. There are more than 1,500 students enrolled in educational programs at the Medical College. This includes 810 medical students and 450 graduate students. College faculty supervise approximately 650 physicians in residency training and 250 physicians in fellowship training through the Medical College of Wisconsin affiliated hospitals.

Contact us

For more information please contact Kristin Rose by email at KRose2@childrenswi.org or by phone (414) 337-7757. Feel free to also contact Dr. Travis Groth, MD program director at TGroth@childrenswi.org.