Fellowship

 

The University of Alberta Complex Spine Fellowship is based both at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital. The fellowship educational objectives are in concordance with the objectives for a complex spine surgery fellow developed by the Canadian Spine Society (Larouche et al. Development of a Competence-Based Spine Surgery Fellowship Curriculum Set of Learning Objectives in Canada. Spine. 2016 Mar;41(6):530-7)

There are four available fellowship positions available per year. The fellowship term is typically one year, but can be extended based upon the fellow's career goals.

Each fellow will typically spend four months on a neurosurgery spinal rotation at the Royal Alexandra Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Fox, Dr. Jack, Dr. Hockley, Dr. Nataraj and and Dr. Kindrachuk, four months on an orthopedic spinal rotation at the Royal Alexandra Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Jiang, Dr. Sharifi, Dr. Huang and Dr. Manolescu, and four months on a combined spinal surgery rotation at the University Hospital under the mentorship of all of the surgeons (currently 9 faculty).

Our fellowship is a busy surgical fellowship, which typically involves 3-4 days/week in the operating room, and exposure to approximately 400 surgical cases. Exposure will be gained to the entire spectrum of spinal disorders, including deformity correction, and intradural pathology.

There is also opportunity while on the University Hospital rotation to attend OR and clinic at the Stollery Children's Hospital scoliosis deformity clinic and surgery, especially if there is no pediatric spine fellow.

At the end of a successful completion of fellowship, a fellowship certificate will be granted by the University of Alberta.

Requirements Call 

This is a complex spinal surgery fellowship in a program with an active residency program. Fellows are expected to have a minimum level of training in general spinal surgery, and are expected to teach residents in these general spine surgery scenarios.
Fellows are expected to be heavily involved with the care of the inpatient service, as well as consultative service, both in the emergency room and for in-patient consults. The fellows are expected to make daily rounds on the inpatient service.

For fellows whose language of instruction of medical school was not English, there are minimum requirements on the International English Language Test (IELTS) that are required. Preference will be given to candidates who have scored over 7.0 in each segment of the IELTS or greater than B in each segment of the OETsbefore they apply for the fellowship.

See the following website for details: 
http://www.cpsa.ca/language-proficiency/

Requirements

Spine call: approximately 1:4 2nd call. Fellows will typically be called when there is a junior orthopedic or neurosurgery resident on call, and when urgent cases arise. Attending spine surgeons will continue to take outside calls.

Research/Teaching

Our spine program is a participating center in the Canadian Spine Outcomes Research Networks (CSRON).  Each fellow can be involved in our research program, and there is opportunity to publish (CSORN - Search Results - PubMed (nih.gov)).  Fellows are responsible for the organization of spine rounds, on Wednesdays at 0700h at the Royal Alexandra site.

Funding

There are a variety of funding models available. If not self-funded, the fellow will be paid by the Complex Spine Surgery program, at a salary of $70 000/yr. In addition, if the fellow is eligible to bill as a surgical assist, a proportion of these billings will be returned to the fellow.

Applications

Application should be made initially (by email) to the Complex Spine Program's Fellowship director, Dr. Andrew Nataraj:
c/o
Pam Weber
Program Administrator
Neurosurgery: nsurgpg@ualberta.ca

Applications should include:

  • curriculum vitae
  • a cover letter describing the applicant's interest in the spine program at the University of Alberta, career aspirations, and any other professional or personal items that may add to the application
  • three letters of reference.

Timeline/Process

Applications for fellowship will generally open in September two years preceding the fellowship year and close by February 1 of the preceding year. Incomplete applications, or applications sent too early will be returned.

Candidates will be notified if they will be interviewed before March 1 of the preceding year. As there are candidates applying who may live a far distance from Edmonton, telephone interviews may be the first step. Interviews will be carried out until June of the preceding year, and selection of fellows will be made shortly thereafter.

Once the selection of the fellows has been done, fellowship applications must also be done through the post-graduate medical education office at the University of Alberta.

Currently, the application period for the 2025 position is closed. Applications for the 2026 position will open again from Sept 1 2025 - Feb 1, 2026