Clinical training

During the Neurotology Fellowship, you work closely with program faculty to provide comprehensive neurotologic care in the ambulatory, inpatient, and outpatient surgical settings.

An apprenticeship model for education is incorporated into the Neurotology Fellowship structure. Specifically, clinical fellows will rotate with individual neurotology faculty for three-month quarters. During this time, you will be primarily assigned to one faculty; however, in order to maximize surgical skull base training, you will cross-cover other faculty on days where skull base cases are scheduled. 

In a typical week, the fellow will have one or two clinic days, one research day, and two or three operative days. The neurotology fellow is not expected to take call; however, in some cases you may participate in clinical or surgical care after routine clinical hours in order to maximize educational opportunities. The fellowship prioritizes complex neurotologic and skull base training; however, you will also receive comprehensive training in otologic surgery including chronic ear surgery, stapes surgery, vestibular surgery, and cochlear implantation. 

Moonlighting

You may moonlight with program director approval. Moonlighting should not interfere with the required learning and must not violate the work-hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or visa regulations. 

Didactic training

You participate in multidisciplinary conferences and courses throughout the academic year, including the monthly Skull Base Tumor Board, the quarterly multidisciplinary NF2 Clinic, the annual temporal bone dissection course (Otofest), the annual Upper Midwest Skull Base Dissection Course, and the annual Cochlear Implant Workshop. The latter three conferences regularly incorporate two or three invited outside guest faculty. In addition, you attend the weekly Neurotology Lecture Series, which includes the Neurotology Journal Club and Skull Base Tumor Board. The Neurotology Lecture Series hosts multidisciplinary guest speakers from throughout Mayo Clinic. See a representative example of the Neurotology Lecture Series schedule.

In addition, a state-of-the-art, newly renovated temporal bone and skull base dissection laboratory is available to the fellow 24 hours a day, seven days a week via key card access. Fresh and formalin fixed temporal bone and whole cadaveric head specimens are readily available upon request.

Research training

You regularly participate in basic science and clinical research, present at regional, national, and international meetings, and submit for peer-reviewed publication. Fellows have one protected day of research each week to support ongoing research studies.

The institution and department collectively offer robust infrastructure to support research within the fields otolaryngology and neurotology. For example, statistical support is readily available through the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, illustration support is freely available through the Division of Biomedical and Scientific Visualization, professional videography is available through media services, and support for anatomical studies is available through the Mayo Clinic Anatomy Laboratory and the Skull Base Dissection Laboratory.

Support for national and international conference attendance is provided per institutional policy. We encourage fellows to initiate and complete one primary research project, but we anticipate you will participate in several larger ongoing projects throughout the two-year fellowship.

Teaching opportunities

Opportunities are available for you to teach rotating residents and medical students. You will also serve as course faculty for three regularly scheduled otology/neurotology courses: the annual temporal bone dissection course (Otofest), the annual Upper Midwest Skull Base Dissection Course, and the annual Cochlear Implant Workshop. As clinical educators, fellows are also granted the title of academic instructor through Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. 

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, your performance is monitored carefully during the Neurotology Fellowship. You are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members on a regular basis and meet with the program director to review these evaluations. In addition, you regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm that your educational needs are being met.