Fellows in the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship at NYU Grossman School of Medicine are an essential part of our team. Our faculty regard fellows as partners who play a crucial role in the pursuit of our mission to provide the highest-quality care to our patients. Maintaining this standard requires consistent, thoughtful integration of clinical data, compassionate interactions with patients and their families, and superb technical skills. Our curriculum is designed to impart and hone these skills.

Clinical Training for Fellows

Fellows receive training at several New York City locations: Tisch Hospital, Kimmel Pavilion, the Center for Female Pelvic Medicine, and NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn, as well as NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue.

Tisch Hospital and Kimmel Pavilion

Tisch Hospital and Kimmel Pavilion are NYU Langone’s Manhattan inpatient facilities. No specific beds are assigned to female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (FPMRS) at these sites. Rather, our FPMRS patients are typically housed postoperatively on the urology and gynecology ward.

All major medical and surgical subspecialty consultative services are available at Tisch Hospital and Kimmel Pavilion. Our faculty use three operating room (OR) areas here: the main OR, the Day Surgery Center, and the minimally invasive urology unit, where we have access to several da Vinci robotic surgical systems, including a single-port (SP) system.

The following faculty members at Tisch Hospital who perform FPMRS operate every day from Monday through Friday:
 
Benjamin M. Brucker, MD
Christina M. Escobar, MD
Nirit Rosenblum, MD
Lauren E. Stewart, MD

Center for Female Pelvic Medicine

The Center for Female Pelvic Medicine is the primary outpatient facility for the fellowship. Clinical resources at this 3,000-square-foot clinical facility include access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to numerous exam rooms, 3 procedure rooms, an OR suite, full-time ultrasound capabilities, several consultation rooms, and a video-urodynamics suite that includes fluoroscopy.

We perform office-based procedures such as cystoscopy, urethral bulking agent injection, botulinum toxin injection, percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, and percutaneous sacral nerve modulation at the center.

Fellows receive an office at the center with a workspace and computer access to all patient medical records, inpatient and outpatient, through our Epic electronic medical records system.

NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn

Twice weekly, a faculty member from our division sees patients at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn, in both the outpatient clinic and OR. Fellows from our program and urology and obstetrics and gynecology residents rotate to this site, where they work with faculty members of both the Departments of Urology and Obstetrics and Gynecology. A da Vinci robotic surgical system is available on-site for our use.

Bellevue

Bellevue, which is affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine, is part of New York City’s municipal hospital system and home to busy urology and obstetrics and gynecology departments. No beds are specifically assigned to urology and female pelvic medicine; patients are assigned to beds on the surgical wards according to their needs.

One day each week, an FPMRS clinic is run by residents and fellows with faculty supervision. Two state-of-the-art critical care units, both of which are available to our patients, house surgical intensive care unit and postoperative patients. The critical care units are supervised by anesthesia and critical care attendings, as well as both anesthesia and surgical house staff.

Female pelvic reconstructive surgical procedures are generally performed one day a week with two attendings who specialize in FPMRS.

Research Opportunities for Fellows

Research is a key part of the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship, with approximately one-third of a fellow’s total time in the program devoted to research activities. Under faculty mentorship, fellows select a clinical, epidemiological, or translational research topic in a subspecialty of FPMRS—urodynamic testing, urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, female voiding dysfunction, neurourology, or urinary tract infections. During the first year, fellows are expected to be involved in at least three clinical research projects that result in presentation at national or international meetings and publication in peer-reviewed journals. In the final year of the program, fellows are expected to conduct and complete either a large outcomes research project or a basic science project.

Faculty in the Division of Female Pelvic Medicine, Reconstructive Surgery, and Neurourology are actively involved in clinical research and have published on urodynamics, female voiding dysfunction, bladder outlet obstruction in women, stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, neurogenic bladder, and pelvic organ prolapse. In addition, members of our division have conducted clinical trials on overactive bladder therapies, devices for prolapse, urethral bulking agents, percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, and stress incontinence devices.

The basic science research program, headed by Xue-Ru Wu, MD, provides opportunities in translational research related to female urologic problems. Members of Dr. Wu’s laboratory have performed pioneering research on the urothelium, and developed projects related to urinary tract infections and interstitial cystitis.

Fellows have the opportunity to attend, and are encouraged to submit abstracts to, annual meetings of the Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine, and Urogenital Reconstruction; the American Urological Association, the International Continence Society, and the American Urogynecologic Society.

Conferences for Fellows

Fellows are expected to attend a variety of conferences during their time in our program:

• weekly female pelvic medicine conference
• departmental conferences, including weekly Urology or Gynecology Grand Rounds
• monthly FPMRS Journal Club
• quarterly urodynamic conferences for urology residents, faculty, and FPMRS fellows

Fellows are also are expected to prepare three lectures per year to be presented at a weekly didactic teaching conference.

Teaching Experience for Fellows

With the guidance of our faculty, fellows are responsible for teaching residents and medical students on a regular basis. In their first year, fellows instruct residents and medical students in the OR and on pre- and postoperative care. In their second year, fellows’ teaching responsibilities increase in both the OR and outpatient clinics, where they are frequently the first resource for residents.

Fellows also prepare and give lectures to residents and medical students during urodynamics conferences, didactic departmental conferences, and FPMRS conferences. In addition, fellows assist in coordinating residents’ and medical students’ clinical research projects in FPMRS.