The neuroanesthesiology fellowship at The Ottawa Hospital is accredited by the International Council on Perioperative Neuroscience Training (www.icpnt.org) and provides the fellow with experience and excellence in the management of a broad range of neurosurgical cases. The fellowship is designed for individuals pursuing a subspecialty focus or an academic career in neuroanesthesiology.

The fellowship is offered at the Civic Campus of The Ottawa Hospital, a tertiary care hospital with the largest neurosurgical referral area in Canada. The neuroanesthesiology group consists of a team of anesthesiologists who have completed Neuroanesthesiology fellowships in leading U.S. and Canadian hospitals and an extended group of anesthesiologists in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine who have significant experience and skill in the subspecialty. The neurosurgery division at The Ottawa Hospital consists of eight neurosurgeons, while the spine service is shared among the neurosurgery and orthopedic departments. Every day, there are at least three operating rooms specifically dedicated to neurosurgery and spine surgery. 

Duties include:

• 2-3 days per week in dedicated neurosurgery operating rooms or in the neurointerventional suite
• 2 days per week in other surgical specialty operating rooms for independent practice
• 4-week rotation in the Neurosciences Acute Care Unit
• Approximately 20 days of protected non-clinical time, including:
  • A research project - it is expected that the fellow will participate in a clinical research project leading to presentation at a national or international meeting or publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This will be supported by faculty and members of our department.
• Participation in the education of anesthesiology residents and medical students
• Participation in weekend on-call coverage (approximately one weekend per month)
• Attendance and presentation at neuroanesthesiology journal club rounds
• Attendance at multidisciplinary patient care rounds
• Participation in educational activities offered by the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC) and the International Council on Perioperative Neuroscience Training (ICPNT)

We provide anesthesia for approximately 2,500 neurosurgical procedures per year in the operating room (1,500 cranial, 1,000 spinal cases) and 500 procedures per year in interventional neuroradiology. These cases include (but are not limited to): craniotomy for tumors, aneurysms and AVMs, skull base surgery, transsphenoidal pituitary surgery, deep brain and spinal cord stimulation, and a variety of complex spine surgeries. The Civic Campus is a tertiary trauma center, meaning that the neuroanesthesiology fellow will have opportunities to participate in the provision of anesthetic care for patients with acute spinal cord injuries or intracranial hemorrhage. We have also recently initiated an epilepsy surgery program, with a growing number of surgical cases expected each year.

The Ottawa Hospital is one of the leading centres in North America for advanced awake craniotomies, including procedures involving detailed intraoperative neurocognitive testing, complex patients, and large and deeply located tumors. We have done more than 1000 awake craniotomies in the last 15 years and presently have 100-120 cases/year.

We also have a dedicated intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring team. Multimodal neurophysiological monitoring is employed regularly for intracranial and spinal neurosurgical procedures. This includes EEG, somatosensory evoked potentials, motor evoked potentials, cranial nerve EMG, auditory and visual evoked potentials, and spinal nerve EMG. This provides the neuroanesthesiology fellow with extensive experience in total intravenous anesthesia and depth of anesthesia monitoring.

In addition to clinical experience in the operating rooms and interventional neuroradiology suite, the fellow will complete a 4-week rotation in the Neurosciences Acute Care Unit (NACU). This provides an opportunity to care for postoperative neurosurgical patients, acute stroke patients and other patients with neurological conditions, while learning from the NACU’s critical care and neurology staff. 

• Adele Budiansky (Cleveland Clinic Alumnus)
• Tom Polis (Mayo Clinic Alumnus)
• Gregory Krolczyk
• Shawn Hicks
• Reva Ramlogan

 Postgraduate Medical Education - PGME | Faculty of Medicine (uottawa.ca)

For more details about application requirements, please click our Fellowship Application Instructions dropdown on the previous page.

Fellowship Leads
Dr. Adele Budiansky
Dr. Tom Polis

Fellowship Program Administrator
Jo-Anne Villeneuve
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
[email protected]