Message from the Chief
Rick Place, MD
Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Inova Children's Hospital
Welcome! We appreciate your interest in our program and hope that you consider us in your future plans. Let me take a moment to describe our program and department.
The founder of our program, Dr. Michael Altieri, was one of the nation’s first pediatric emergency medicine fellows. Originally established to create a more community-oriented experience, the fellowship has evolved, as the department has evolved, into a more traditional fellowship with a community "flavor." We provide a full clinical and research experience as well as elective opportunities.
With increasing emphasis on reducing variability between programs and ensuring a relatively standard experience, fellowship programs have become more similar than different. But each institution provides somewhat different experiences.
What sets our program apart is our motivation. The fellowship program is one of the pillars of our pediatric emergency department, an anchor around which much of the mission of the department revolves. The attending staff has chosen to work at this institution, to a great extent, because of the fellowship program and the opportunity to teach and mentor. So the interaction between the fellows and the attending staff is very much hands on. We like to think that we are not here to teach “fellows” so much as to teach individuals.
As a small program, we try and choose our fellows with care; after all, as members of our work “family” we will have to live with them for the next 2-3 years. We therefore select our candidates based on personality as well as intellectual fit, in the same way that you will choose a program. You will ask yourselves as well, can I be happy in this department for the next three years? Do I like the people I will be working with? As you consider where you want to live and train for the next few years, consider giving us a call or arranging for an interview. We are proud of our department and our program and we are more than happy to talk about what we do.
Contact us 
