Complex Care Education and Training Program (CREATOR)

Program Description

The CREATOR Training Attending Program is a 1-year, full-time, clinically-focused program, the goal of which is to provide advanced and accelerated training to lay the foundation for a career in caring for children with medical complexity (CMC). We hire one attending physician per year and deliver a high-yield curriculum involving immersion in numerous complex care-focused clinical and educational activities, structured within a competency-based medical education framework.

Prior to the existence of advanced training programs in pediatric complex care, practitioners acquired expertise in the care of CMC over time through “on-the-job" experience. With our unique model, we seek to accelerate the clinician’s exposure to and knowledge about caring for CMC through three key program features.

Clinical work

The training attending physician will provide direct care for CMC in the following contexts:

Compass Care, our outpatient consultative medical home for CMC, where the training attending physician will care for their own patient panel
Complex Care inpatient services, our resident teaching service and attending-only service, both situated within the Section of Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Consult service, providing consultative care to admitted Compass Care patients and off-service Complex Care Service patients, as well as providing consultations for complex care medical questions from ICUs and other hospital services

Depending on the training attending physician’s interests and goals, there may be opportunities to participate in clinical work on other services, including general pediatrics services, surgical subspecialties co-management team, medical behavioral unit, and palliative care.

Mentorship

We have built a robust mentorship framework to support the trainee, including the following program elements:

For some clinical activities, the training attending physician will initially be paired with and closely mentored by a senior Complex Care Service attending physician, with the expectation of increasing autonomy over the course of the year
The training attending physician will meet regularly with the program director to discuss interesting and challenging cases, as well as professional and career development topics
The training attending physician will participate in weekly case conferences with Complex Care Service faculty

Didactic and Elective Experiences

The trainee will be given protected time to participate in a rich selection of educational offerings, including:

Lecture series on complex care topics
Observations in multidisciplinary subspecialty clinics
Hands-on and observational activities to promote complex care-specific skill building
Selected asynchronous offerings, including curated readings, recorded lectures, and interactive online modules

Program Leadership

Pamela Mazzeo, Director
Christina McClam, Associate Director

Application

The ideal applicant will be passionate about the care of CMC, committed to a career involving CMC, and eager to gain more experience caring for this population. Applications for the 2025-26 academic year are now closed. Please check back in summer 2025 for details on how to apply for the 2026-27 year.