Newborn Medicine

The mission of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship program at Tufts Medical Center is to create a comprehensive educational environment for our trainees to develop into excellent clinicians, researchers and teachers who will become leaders in their clinical and academic careers.

We aim to accomplish this mission by:

1. Providing broad clinical experience in neonatal pathophysiology and evidence-based medical care.
2. Exposure to scholarly work including clinical, translational, basic science research, medical education and quality improvement.
3. Providing education and mentoring opportunities to develop as role-models and teachers.
4. Fostering mentor/mentee relationships which encourage fellows to pursue academic careers.
5. Excellence and innovation in didactic education.

Clinical Experience

The Division of Newborn Medicine at Tufts Medical Center provides excellent neonatal care to newborns throughout an extensive network of nurseries, with an average of 11,000 deliveries yearly. The Obstetrical service at Tufts Medical Center has a strong emphasis on prenatal diagnosis and high-risk Obstetrics; 90% of all deliveries in our center are high risk deliveries. Additional high-risk mothers who present to our affiliate level I and II centers are transferred to the Tufts NICU. The Tufts Maternal Fetal Medicine group provides care/consultation to these high-risk patients at the level II centers. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Tufts Medical Center is a 40 bed unit. A dedicated Neonatal Transport Team transfers newborn in need of a higher level of care from our affiliates and other community hospitals to the Tufts NICU. Once here, infants receive advanced specialized treatments including high frequency ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), therapeutic total body cooling, and pediatric sub-specialty care including various pediatric surgical care options. Tufts also provides a wide complement of surgical services for complex neonatal conditions. 

Fellows complete their training at Tufts Medical Center, a 415-bed hospital providing a range of services from routine medical care to treating the most complex diseases affecting adults and children. Tufts Medical Center is home to 45 ACGME accredited training programs and is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine. Starting academic year 2022- 2023, the clinical experience is going to be enhanced by additional core NICU training at Boston Children's Hospital.

A full spectrum of follow-up services for high-risk NICU graduates is provided at Tufts Medical Center for Children with Special Needs. Our NICU's High-Risk Infant Follow-Up Program provides comprehensive developmental evaluation services and follow-up assessments. Comprehensive training and research collaborations between Neonatology and Developmental Behavioral pediatrics allows for trainees to choose a combined fellowship in Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics and Neonatal Perinatal Medicine.

Fellows as Frontline Physicians and Educators

Our fellows form an integral part of our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and they are the core of NICU transport team. Fellows are the front-line physicians in every aspect of clinical care. The faculty and nurses are all invested in their training and education. Our clinical network enables us to expose our trainees to a high-risk population with a broad range of high-acuity diagnoses. Exposure to complex care and follow up care are also guaranteed through our network of hospitals. Complex surgical patients are co-managed with the surgical specialties with neonatal-perinatal fellows again being the frontline physicians.

Developing excellence as clinical educators is an integral part of fellowship, and as the Tufts Medical Center is the primary teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine and the pediatrics residency program, fellows get ample opportunity to acquire and practice teaching, mentoring and leadership skills. Opportunities for teaching include formal didactic teaching sessions, daily multidisciplinary new patient discussions in the NICU, and informal bedside teaching during daily rounds.

The curriculum is structured to foster educational, academic and scholarly excellence as well as outstanding, high-quality patient care. Fourteen months of the three-year fellowship are devoted to the clinical service (including CICU). Clinical time decreases as fellow's progress through the years of fellowship, with the majority of the third year devoted to scholarly activities.

During the first-year clinical rotations, fellows concentrate on developing a broad fund of knowledge while improving their clinical, technical, supervisory, teaching and team leadership skills. They work closely with the attending neonatologists in overseeing care for all infants in the NICU, including co-management of all surgical and subspecialty infants and acquiring proficiency in handling ethical dilemmas and bereavement. All first-year fellows serve as members of the QI committee that oversees all QI activities in the Division.

During the second year, the focus is on developing their research and transitioning to independent clinician status. The clinical responsibilities are reduced after the first year as research endeavors become established. Additionally, per ACGME requirements, each fellow also becomes a leader of a QI project. The third-year fellow is expected to function autonomously in the NICU and also acts as an attending during the "pretending" service block.

Clinical Schedule

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellows spend approximately thirteen months on clinical service and rest of the time is dedicated to research/scholarly activities.

Clinical NICU service time occurs at Tufts NICU and Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) NICU. Tufts NICU service is divided equally between team A and B. Fellows spend 4 weeks each year at BCH NICU.

• Team A carries about 2/3rd of the NICU census where the patient load is divided between pediatric residents, advanced practitioners and medical students (sub-Is and 3rd year medical students). The fellow on Team A develops autonomy, mentorship to residents, advanced practitioners and medical students; and teaching skills while under the guidance of an attending physician. 
• Team B fellow carries the rest of NICU patients and provides coverage for high-risk deliveries, critical neonatal transports and prenatal consults under the supervision of the attending faculty. The patient load on team B is managed by NNPs and PAs in collaboration with the attending and the fellow. This allows the fellows to learn the skills of leading skilled neonatal providers, prioritization, multitasking and being in a leadership/supervisory role for the team as they also manage high-risk deliveries, transports and prenatal consults. 
• Starting academic Year 2022-2023, fellows will be rotating for 1 block/year for a total of 3 blocks during the entire fellowship at the BCH Level IV NICU. This block has been designed to provide clinical experience to complex medical and surgical cases and enhance the clinical experience currently existing at the Level IIIb NICU at Tufts Medical Center. Fellows will be responsible for direct patient care during this experience with a structured rotation schedule and will be a part of the Core Clinical team at BCH. These blocks will provide the fellows an opportunity to interact and be mentored by the attending team at BCH.  
• All in-house night and weekend calls for the fellows will be at the Tufts Medical Center NIUC.  As PGY-5 and PGY-6 our fellows have the is opportunity to take extra-clinical duty hour calls at a level 2 special care nursery with delivery room experience.  
• Fellows also rotate through the BCH CICU for a 4-week period. This program has evolved over the last couple of years as a much enriched regional program for all NPM fellowships in New England under the leadership of a dedicated core group of BCH CICU and regional NICU attendings. In addition to clinical experience, a bi-annual case conference series addresses complex case management issues.
• Senior fellows (2nd and 3rd year) also have an elective option at Maine Medical Center NICU, to attain additional experience and autonomy. Maine Medical Center is also a teaching site for Tufts University School of Medicine and houses their own pediatrics residency program. The fellow works in a similar fashion to their role at the Tufts NICU i.e. in a supervisory role.
• Senior fellows have the option of pursuing a more intense clinical elective in maternal-fetal medicine, palliative care or pediatric cardiology. 
• The call frequency lightens with advancing fellowship years to allow for elective and research endeavors. Fellows have an average of 5 calls per month during fellowship.

Educational Curriculum

The Division of Newborn Medicine at Tufts is dedicated to the training and education of our neonatal-perinatal fellows. We strive to incorporate variable teaching methods by mixing traditional lectures with hands-on simulation, 'flipped classroom" and group discussions. Fellows are also encouraged to join faculty development seminars provided by the Department of Pediatrics, as well as other department-wide seminars. Below is a description of the structured educational activities provided during the neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Tufts Medical Center.

A. Daily

• Morning board rounds: fellow leads multidisciplinary, evidence-based discussion of management plans for high-risk impending deliveries, patient flow and new patient/challenging case discussion from the day before. While on the delivery service, fellows also participate in daily rounds with the obstetric service.

B. Bi-weekly

• Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Physiology Curriculum Series based on the American Board of Pediatrics content specifications, and additional topics related to the practice and science of neonatology. Weekly sessions completed over a two-year cycle during fellowship. There will be collaboration of the NPM Physiology Curriculum with Boston Children's NPM Fellowship and all didactic sessions will be available to Tufts Fellows and incorporated into the Curriculum Series.

C. Weekly

• The weekly Neonatal/Perinatal Divisional conference provides a medium for faculty as well as national experts to present on their area of authority. It provides fellows an opportunity to present mentored educational conferences. 
• Evidence-based topic reviews
• Case discussions
• Journal club: critical appraisal of a peer reviewed publication
• Neonatal Topic debate
• Surgical case discussion with our pediatric surgical colleagues and pertinent review of literature.

Other weekly conferences:

• Pediatric Grand Rounds (departmental)
• Tufts Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) center seminars

D. Monthly

• Multidisciplinary Neonatal Simulation Curriculum addresses key neonatal, high acuity low occurrence (HALO) scenarios and difficult/ethically challenging conversations.
• The Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) seminars present cutting edge, multi-disciplinary research focusing on fetal, maternal and newborn health. 
• Fetal boards: discussion of complex pathologic states of mother and or fetus with MFM and subspecialty service. 
• Mortality, and Morbidity conferences are fellow led and peer reviewed. These address adverse events and quality issues using root cause analysis under faculty mentorship. The report of QI/QA issues is presented at monthly NICU QI/QA meetings and fellows participate in developing divisional QI practices. 
• 18-month Combined Pediatric Subspecialty Fellow's Research/Core Scholarly Curriculum

E. Quarterly

• Medical economics curriculum occurs quarterly
• Research seminars (fellow and faculty project updates) including quality improvement project updates. 
• Combined MFM/Neonatology Conference: discussing evidence-based topics affecting the mother and fetus.

F. Yearly

• Simulation Boot camps: First year fellow participate in the CHOP Simulation Boot Camp in July of entering year. Senior Fellows participate in the Regional Simulation Boot Camp hosted by Tufts Division of Newborn Medicine. New Fellow Orientation: First year fellows receive a structured orientation including systems orientation, basics practical high-yield neonatal didactics, introductions to neonatal faculty and multidisciplinary NICU staff, shadowing in NICU for first 2 weeks and then rounding with a mentoring senior fellow for the second half of July.

Fellows of Division of Newborn Medicine can engage in a broad variety of research opportunities within the Division of Newborn Medicine and Department of Pediatrics, as well as outside the division. 

FThere are NIH-funded research opportunities in clinical, basic science and translational sciences associated with the Division of Newborn Medicine and the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI). The Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) currently centers its research on three topics of current clinical, public health and economic significance including; preterm birth and its complications, reduction of adverse effects on mother and child due to maternal obesity, fetal and neonatal genomic medicine, salivary diagnostics and fetal brain initiative. 

FIn addition, fellows have the opportunity to work in any of the laboratories associated with the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts CTSI, broader Tufts University and other non-Tufts facilities in the Boston area. The overall scope of research opportunities at MIRI, Sackler School and newborn medicine includes but is not limited to; salivary transcriptome and genomics (affecting infant feeding, neonatal sepsis, NEC, infants of diabetic mothers), neonatal abstinence syndrome, developmental biology, placental biology, perinatal epidemiology, molecular biology, genetics, infectious diseases, neonatal outcomes research esp., neuro-developmental outcomes, respiratory outcomes, clinical investigation, clinical trials, quality improvement, simulation and medical education.

FThe goal of the Fellowship Program's research training is to provide a foundation for successful independent inquiry by focusing and developing research interests and skills in a supportive, collegial environment. Careful mentoring, structured core scholarly curriculum sessions, and regular research seminars can be supplemented with a wealth of resources from the Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University community, allowing each fellow's training to be tailored to individual goals. Fellows also have an opportunity to enroll in Clinical and Translational Science Graduate Program which offers Masters' and certificate programs during the course of their fellowship through the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Core Scholarly Curriculum and Other Research Support

Fellows receive an initial orientation to the research curriculum, ACGME scholarly activity requirements, and currently available research opportunities. The core scholarly curriculum addressing the ABP and ACGME core curriculum requirements is covered through a 18 month combined pediatric fellowship curriculum which starts with a scholarly/research orientation boot camp with the goal of providing an introduction to research opportunities, expectations and addressing overall purpose of research or scholarly work in fellowship. Specific core curriculum needs of neonatal-perinatal medicine fellows are addressed by workshops and or group sessions.

Statistical support for fellow research is available in our division with faculty trained in epidemiology and biostatistics and through the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Center. Fellows are encouraged to apply for intramural and extramural grants and may begin pursuit of funds to extend structured research training into the future. Fellows are supported to present their research at major regional and/or national conferences (PAS, ESPR, AAP, North East Perinatal Research Meeting, NEPS etc.). Select fellows are nominated to attend the AAP sponsored Annual Fellows Seminar and Annual Perinatal Strategies Conferences. Other conference attendance based on fellow specific interest is encouraged (eg: VON conference, IPSSW, Neonatology Hot Topics etc.)

Timeline of Research

Geoffrey G. Binney, Jr., MD, MPH
Pediatrician-in-Chief, Tufts Medical Center; Neonatologist; Chair of Department of Pediatrics and David and Leona F. Karp Professor in Pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine  

Jaclyn Boulais, MD
NICU Associate Medical Director; Associate Program Director, Pediatrics Residency Program; Neonatologist; Assistant Professor, TUSM

Mario Cordova, MD
Director, Neonatology, Lowell General Hospital; Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

Christiane E. L. Dammann, MD
Neonatologist; Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

Jonathan M. Davis, MD
Chief, Division of Newborn Medicine
Vice-Chair of Pediatrics 

Amy Heiderich, MD
Neonatologist; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine

Ronnelle King, MD
Neonatologist; Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

Raja R. Senguttuvan, MD
Director, Neonatology, Lawrence General Hospital
Neonatologist, Tufts Medical Center

Rachana Singh, MD, MS
Associate Chief, Division of Newborn Medicine
Program Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program

Alexandra M. Smith, MD
Neonatologist, Tufts Medical Center

Brenda Tanguay, BSN, MS
Clinical Nursing Director

MaryAnn V. Volpe, MD
Neonatologist, Tuft Children's Hospital
Vice Chair of IRB
Director, Neonatology, MetroWest Medical Center

Elizabeth Yen, MD
Principal Investigator, Mother Infant Research Institute 
Neonatologist, Tufts Medical Center

3rd Year NPM Fellows

Timothy Marinelli, DO
Dr. Marinelli grew up in Longmeadow, MA and completed medical school at University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota where he also studied the efficacy of delivering surfactant to premature infants by laryngeal mask airway.  His area of interest for research is neurodevelopment in premature infants.

Hayley Wilcox, DO
Dr. Wilcox calls Massachusetts her home state. She graduated from University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Maine. Hayley attended Albany Medical Center for residency, and spent the last two years working as a NICU hospitalist in Boston. She is interested in quality improvement, transport medicine within NICU networks, and infectious disease. She spends her time away from work with her husband, two daughters, and cat, Moose. She enjoys hiking in the White Mountains, cross country skiing, and spending time outdoors.

2nd Year NPM Fellows

Samira Abudinen Vasquez, MD
Dr. Abudinen-Vasquez joined Tufts after her pediatric residency and chief year at Icahn School of Medicine at Sinai at Elmhurst. Her love for Neonatology grew as she bonded with newborns and their families. Her interests include Simulation and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. In her free time, she likes to go to the park with her husband and 10-month-old son. She also enjoys traveling and can’t wait to go back to Italy. “

Neha Chaudhary, MD
Dr. Chaudhary was born in India and traveled to different countries in South East Asia during her childhood. She graduated from Maulana Azad Medical College, India for medical school and residency and did residency again from New York.  Dr. Chaudhary has been a hospitalist in NICU at BIDMC also, did prior research work in patent ductus in preterm infants, covid 19 infection in newborns and am interested in pulmonary outcomes in newborns. She enjoys traveling, painting and bricklaying.

Eva Takhalova, DO
Dr. Takhalova grew up in Queens, New York. She completed a combined 7-year BS/DO program at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, followed by pediatric residency at NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island. She is interested in quality improvement, antibiotic stewardship, and bioethics in the NICU. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, walking through the scenic Boston Public Garden, and spending time with friends and family.

1st Year NPM Fellows

Rebecca Satty, DO

Maggie Vogel, DO

Volha Belavusava, MD

Class of 2022:

Sudesna Lakshman, MD
Dr. Lakshman grew up in Maine and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis prior to medical school at the University of Virginia. She joined Tufts Medical Center as a pediatric/neonatal hospitalist after completing pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia. Dr. Lakshman decided to stay in Boston to pursue Neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Tufts. Her research interests include pulmonary hypertension and health disparities. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, culinary experiments and spending time with her husband & friends.

Shubham Bakshi, MD
Dr. Bakshi was born in Ahmedabad, India and grew up partly in India and then moved to Ohio at age 17. He graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University and U Mass- Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA. His prior research experiences include effect of dysphagia on swallowing mechanism during medical school and during residency looked at effects of early fluid resuscitation in outcomes for VLBW infants. He is a Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) master trainer and taught the local birth attendants the basics of HBB during a rotation in India. His research interests include nutrition, fluids and electrolytes in premature infants. Outside of work, he enjoys sports, hiking and singing. He looks forward to exploring the city of Boston with his wife.   

Class of 2015:

Carmina Erdei, MD
Dr. Erdei was a fellow in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics from 2011 to 2015. Under the mentorship of Dr. Olaf Dammann, she studied antenatal antecedents of the development of autism in extremely low gestational age newborns (ELGAN) using the M-CHAT. The research was presented at the Harvard Newborn Medicine Fellows Research Symposium, NEPS, ESPR, and PAS. Carmina authored papers published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine and Pediatrics. She received the Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award and travel awards from ESPR and the Susan Saltonstall Foundation. Her QI project on “Reductions in Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) in the NICU” was presented at the VON QI Consortium, the New England Neonatology Quality and Safety Forum, and PAS. She is now an attending neonatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jessica Davidson, MD
Following pediatric residency at Tufts MC, Dr. Davidson was a fellow in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine from 2012 to 2015. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jill Maron, she studied salivary diagnostics, examining the role of olfaction in successful oral feeding in preterm infants. Her QI projects focused on education and communication surrounding prenatal consults, building a transport module, and improving adherence to non-invasive ventilatory support in the NICU. Her research was presented at Levine Children's Hospital QI Coaching Conference, Harvard Newborn Medicine Fellows Research Symposium, NEPS, ESPR, and PAS. Through her involvement in AAP/TECaN (Trainee and Early Career Neonatologists), Dr. Davidson received a travel award and a leadership award. Dr. Davidson is working as an attending neonatologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Noeet Elitsur, MD
Dr. Elitsur was a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow from 2012 to 2015. Under the mentorship of Dr. MaryAnn Volpe, she developed a novel interactive tool to teach the importance of lactation to parents in the NICU. She was awarded Innovations in Education Intramural Research Grant by Tufts University School of Medicine and presented the result at NEPS, ESPR, PAS, and AAMC Group of Educational Affairs conferences. Her QI project focused on hospital stay reduction for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which was presented at the VON meeting. She won numerous travel awards from NEPS, ESPR, Susan Saltonstall, and Discovery Laboratories, Inc. Dr. Elitsur is an attending neonatologist at Nemours, AI duPont Hospital for Children.

Laura Madore, MD
Dr. Madore came to Tufts MC for her Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship from 2012 to 2015. Under the mentorship of Dr. Rimi Sen, she received a Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award, focusing her research on how the use of donor breast milk in preterm infants affected their growth rates and neurodevelopmental outcome. A recipient of numerous travel awards, Dr. Madore presented her study at ESPR, the American Society of Nutrition, the New England Conference on Perinatal Research, and PAS. The result of her study was published in Clinical Therapeutics. She is currently a neonatologist at Baystate Medical Center.

Class of 2016:

Nasim Gorji, DO
Dr. Gorji was a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow at Tufts MC between 2013 and 2016. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Davis, she conducted research examining the role of Clara Cell Protein in normal lung homeostasis. Her study was published in Neonatology and presented at ESPR and PAS. Dr. Gorji presented her QI project titled “Supporting Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Staff through Post-Death Debriefings” at The Harvard Newborn Medicine Fellows Research Symposium. She is currently a neonatologist at University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital.

Annette Scheid, MD
Dr. Scheid did her postdoctoral research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and completed a Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Fellowship from 2013 – 2016 at Tufts Medical Center. Under the mentorship of Dr. Ofer Levy, Dr. Scheid studied the role of TLR8 agonist in immunomodulatory effects of live BCG vaccine in neonatal innate and adaptive immune responses, and the role of TLR7/8 in overcoming hyperresponsiveness to pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. The results of these studies have been published in Pulmonary Circulation, Journal of Allergy and Clinical immunology, and JCI Insight. She presented her research at PAS, ESPR, Harvard Newborn Medicine Fellow Research, and Judah Folkman Research Day. She also received ESPR and Saltonstall Travel Awards, the SPR Fellow Basic Research Award, and won Best Neonatal Research Presentation at NEPS. Under the mentorship of Dr. Pereira, she also conducted QI projects on delayed cord clamping in preterm infants and a department- wide “Health Literacy and Enhance Relationships and Services (HEALERS)” project. Dr. Scheid is currently a neonatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Class of 2017:

Jaclyn Boulais, MD
Dr. Boulais was a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow at Tufts Medical Center from 2014 to 2017. Under the mentorship of Dr. Bonnie Arzuaga, she completed her research project on parental and physician perspectives regarding concern for mortality in the NICU. She was involved in the department wide QI initiative 'Health Literacy and Enhance Relationships and Services (HEALERS) Project.' She is a neonatologist at Tufts Medical Center.

Jessica McGovern, DO
Dr. McGovern was a Neonatal Perinatal Medicine fellow from 2014 to 2017. Under the mentorship of Dr. MaryAnn Volpe, she studied the utility of interactive educational modules in improving nursing knowledge of the care of extremely preterm and at risk term newborns. This research was presented at the NEPS. She was involved in the department wide QI initiative 'Health Literacy and Enhanced Relationships and Services (HEALERS) Project.' She currently works as a neonatologist at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington D.C.

Diana Yanni, MD
Dr. Yanni was a Neonatal Perinatal Medicine fellow between 2014 and 2017. Under the mentorship of Dr. Olaf Dammann she studied the role of antenatal and postnatal inflammation in cerebral white matter damage and neurodevelopmental outcome in ELGAN. Her research was published in Pediatric Research. She was a recipient of Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award. She presented her research at PAS and ESPR and was an ESPR Young Investigator Award Trainee Finalist. She was involved in the department wide QI initiative 'Health Literacy and Enhanced Relationships and Services (HEALERS) Project.' She is currently a neonatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Class of 2018

Kikelomo Babata, MD
Dr. Babata completed her pediatric residency at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York and subsequently practiced pediatric primary care for the Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During fellowship she worked with the ELGAN group under the mentorship of Dr Olaf Dammann, focusing on the neurocognitive outcomes and the socioemotional and communication limitations of preterm infants with late bacteremia. She had two publications out of her core scholarly work published in Journal of Pediatrics and Early Human Development. Dr. Babata will be working as faculty at UT-Southwestern.

Ruby Bartolome, DO
Dr. Bartolome completed her pediatric residency and a chief resident year at The University of Connecticut Medical Center. During fellowship, Dr. Batolome investigated the genetics of oral feeding and speech and language development. Dr. Bartolome is an attending neonatologist at Boston Medical Center.

Hayley Friedman, MD
Dr. Freidman completed residency at St. Louis University. Throughout fellowship, her core interest in advocacy and public health guided her research endeavors, focusing on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) within the setting of the current opioid epidemic. She remained actively involved in the AAP Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine as the District I TECaN Representative (2015-2017), and now as the co-chair of the TECaN Advocacy Campaign, and as TECaN ONTPD liaison to neonatology program directors. Dr. Freidman is currently a neonatologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Class of 2019

Rina Mosley, DO
Dr. Mosley completed medical school and residency in Georgia at PCOM-GA and Medical College of Georgia respectively. She worked as a Pediatric and then NICU hospitalist prior to starting NICU fellowship.  She completed a medical education based project under the mentorship of Dr. McGuirl on developing a NICU orientation curriculum for the interns and assessing their confidence, satisfaction and knowledge retention as well as working on a quality improvement initiative to optimize calcium phosphorous balance in the preterm TPN dependent population. She joined Tufts Tufts Medical Center as attending neonatologist.

Ramya Natarajan, MD
Dr. Natarajan completed the 7 year medical program at The College of New Jersey and UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and residency at Albert Einstein-Jacobi Medical Center. During her fellowship at Tufts Medical Center, she pursued her research interests of medical education and simulation, completing her project “Impact of a HighFidelity Simulation Curriculum on Multidisciplinary Teamwork During Resuscitation and Transport of ELBW Infants’, which was heavily accepted for multiple presentations at national and regional meetings. She joined Tufts Tufts Medical Center as attending neonatologist and plans to pursue her simulation based interests.

Class of 2020

Raghava Kavalla, MBBS, MPH
Dr. Kavalla was born and raised in a beautiful city of Hyderabad in India. After finishing medical school, she moved to US to pursue Masters in Public Health at Brown University; later, she did two years of research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She did her residency at Albert Einstein medical center in the city of brotherly love, where she found her love for neonatology. During residency, she became a master trainer in Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) Program through which she spent a month in Telangana, India teaching neonatal resuscitation to a group of midwives and nurses. She is pursuing global health research under the mentorship of Dr. Patricia Hibbard at BU. When not at work, she spends time with her husband and two adorable children Meera and Kiran.

Cathy (Xin) Yu, MD
Dr. Yu was born in Beijing, China and grew up in Springfield, IL. She went to medical school and residency at Southern Illinois University. She cherished being near family, and also met her husband in Springfield during medical school. After 6 years of training in the Mid-west, she finally decided to leave home and start her journey in the East Coast. Her scholarly interests are in quality improvement, looking at optimizing noise levels in the NICU and monitoring certain associated clinical outcomes.  Outside of work, she enjoys eating, traveling and working out. Now, Dr. Yu works as a Neonatologist at Adventist Health White Memorial, LA.

Jane Chung, MD
There is not one place that Dr. Chung calls home because she has lived everywhere! She has journeyed through Los Angeles, Seoul, Korea, New Jersey, San Francisco, and San Diego.  After finishing medical school at St. George’s University, she finished pediatric residency at Cooper University Hospital. Under the mentorship of Drs. Volpe and Iyengar, she is studying risk factors for developing BPD and respiratory outcomes with changing trends in respiratory care. She has already presented her preliminary findings at multiple national and regional meetings (PAS 2019, ESPR 2019, NEPS 2019, Children’s Hospital Consortium Meeting 2019 and several other regional conferences). She is working with Drs. Afzal and Tarui to identify risk factors for developing IVH and a targeted approach to reduce the incidence of IVH in our unit through a multidisciplinary quality improvement project which she will be presenting at VON, Chicago, 2019. Now, Dr. Chung is a Neonatologist at UCLA.

Class of 2021

Shawana Bibi, MD
Dr. Bibi grew up in Pakistan and graduated from Ayub Medical College in Pakistan. She joined Boston Children’s Hospital for residency after having done a pediatrics residency in Pakistan. Dr. Bibi decided to stay in Boston to pursue Neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Tufts. She is exploring her research interest on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Davis looking into the use of novel biomarkers to predict severity of NAS especially in mothers with psychiatric illnesses. She is also pursuing Masters in Clinical and Translational Research which is partially funded through the NIH TL1 program. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, travelling, spending time with family which includes her husband and two beautiful children. Dr. Bibi currently works in Cleveland Clinic as a Neonatologist.

Dara Azuma, MD
Dr. Azuma graduated from University of Hawaii for medical school and joined Tufts Medical Center at Tufts Medical Center for residency and decided to stay as a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow. She is pursuing research under the mentorship of Drs. Maron and O'Tierney-Ginn at the Mother and Infant Research Institute at Tufts looking into salivary gene expression and metabolic profiles of Infant of Diabetic Mothers as predictors of feeding outcomes. Ethics and palliative care is another area which definitely sparks an interest. When not at work, Dr. Azuma likes to play tennis, softball and is a good baker. Now, Dr. Azuma is continuing to work at Tufts MC.

Tina Jumani, MD
Dr. Jumani came back to her home town after finishing medical school in Maine and residency at Albany Medical Center, NY. Dr. Jumani has been involved with Donor Breast Milk research at Tufts in the past testing the effects of Donor Breastmilk Feeding on Growth and Early Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Preterm Infants. She is interested in outcomes associated with neonatal encephalopathy requiring total body cooling and is pursuing a multicenter project on effects of morphine during total body cooling. In her spare time, she loves trying out new restaurants in the Boston area. She loves to dance (Bollywood and Zumba), and run, in addition to spending time with her husband and family. Dr. Jumani currently works in St. Elizabeth's Medical Center as a Neonatologist.

Other Alumni:

Elisha Wachman, MD is a graduate of the Boston Combined Residency Program Dr. Wachman was a fellow from 2010 to 2013. Working with Dr. Jonathan Davis, she studied whether single nucleotide polymorphisms in the multidrug resistance and mu opioid receptor genes were associated with an increase in the incidence and severity of neonatal abstinence syndrome. Her research was presented at ESPR, PAS and NEPS. She received ESPR travel awards and won the PAS Best Clinical Research Abstract award. Dr. Wachman joined Boston Medical Center and is also pursuing her interests in NAS.

Silfa Mazara, MD was a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow from 2007 to 2010 working with Dr. MaryAnn Volpe examining how oxygen exposure affects transcription factors during the progression of lung airway branching, vessel development, and cellular maturation. Her study was presented at PAS and the American Thoracic Society and published in Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling. She is a recipient of an AAP Klaus Perinatal Research Grant, Ikaria Research Grant Award, PAS Fellow’s Basic Science Research Award, and the New England Perinatal Society (NEPS) Research Award. Dr. Silfa Mazara joined the Medical Director of the SCN at Holy Family Hospital.

Sharmeel Khaira, MD was a Newborn Medicine fellow from 2011-2014. Under the mentorship of Dr. MaryAnn Volpe, she pursued research examining whether expressed breast milk (EBM) protein content predicts accumulated protein deficit after preterm birth. The research was presented at PAS and ESPR. She was the recipient of the ESPR Meritorious Scientific Poster Award and Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award. She won an ESPR Travel award as well as the NIH New Investigator Travel Award. Dr. Khaira joined the faculty at the Women’s Hospital of Texas.

Neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship program at participates in the ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) match program. To apply online for the Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Training Program, please visit the ERAS website for more information. We support J1 Visas for international applicants. Applicants must register with the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). For information, visit the NRMP web site. Admission to Tufts Medical Center’s Program is competitive, so applicants should apply early. We generally match two to three trainees per year. The deadline to apply is October 31. Applications can be submitted beginning July 15.

After applications are thoroughly reviewed, qualified candidates will be contacted for a personal interview. The interview involves several of our faculty and fellows. If the candidate has a specific research interest, every effort will be made to include faculty working in that area during the visit.

To learn more about the Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center at Tufts Medical Center, please contact:

Rachana Singh, MD, MS
Program Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program
email: rsingh2@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Romal Jassar, MD
Associate Program Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program
email: rjassar@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Hina Iqbal
Program Coordinator, Pediatric Subspecialty Fellowship Coordinator
email: hiqbal1@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Division of Newborn Medicine
Tufts Medical Center
755 Washington Street
Tufts Medical Center, Box #44
Boston, MA 02111 USA
Phone: 617-636-5322
Fax: 617-636-1456