Message from the Chair

Our mission is to provide a training environment in which residents develop excellent clinical skills, versatile teaching abilities and facility in child advocacy, clinical research, and quality improvement.

Our program looks to train confident, resourceful pediatricians who value teamwork and make a difference in the lives of their patients in general pediatrics or in the subspecialty of their choice.

We seek applicants from diverse backgrounds who value critical thinking and who possess the work ethic necessary to become excellent pediatricians while acting as the safety net for the community. We strive to train pediatricians who, upon graduation, are able to see a full panel of patients at a busy Gen Peds clinic or be a leader in their subspecialty training program of choice.

Barbara Ostrov, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics

Program Aims

  • Recruit residents from diverse backgrounds (educationally, culturally, and experientially) who value supporting our community’s needs, acquiring excellence in clinical practice, child advocacy, and academics.
  • Maintain an even split of graduates in general vs. subspecialty practice.
  • Provide an individualized training experience.
  • Formally train all residents in the elements of community advocacy, academic research and scholarly activity, and quality improvement including training and experience in critical appraisal of the medical literature.
  • Ensure that all residents are trained in and engage with quality improvement methodologies and activities in our health system.
  • Ensure that all trainees have adequate exposure to and experience with a variety of settings and technologies in health care.
  • Cultivate and enhance resident wellness.
  • Enhance faculty development to achieve program goals.

Facilities & Affiliations

The Bernard & Millie Duker Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center is a hospital within a hospital. It includes 125 beds, 140 physicians trained in 40 subspecialties, and more than 400 pediatric nurses, therapists, social workers, and child-life specialists. The children's hospital has more than 125,000 outpatient visits and 7,300 inpatient visits each year.

As the sole children’s hospital in the region, we are dedicated to the dual missions of educating our pediatric residents while caring for the seriously sick and injured children living in the 25 counties of eastern New York and western New England.

Premature and seriously sick infants receive life-saving care in our state-of-the-art NICU and PICU. Our PICU, childhood cancer program in The Melodies Center, pediatric AIDS program, and Congenital Heart Program are the only ones of their kind in the region. Our children’s hospital is also a state and nationally-recognized accredited Cystic Fibrosis center, Sickle Cell  & Hemoglobinopathy, Genetic & Metabolism Treatment Center, and Lead-Poisoning and Environmental Health Resource Center.

Primary Care Experience

Our pediatric residency program offers a strong and continuously growing primary care experience. Primary care training consists of weekly continuity clinic sessions and annual ambulatory rotations. With the guidance of our expert general pediatrics faculty, residents develop their own patient panel and have the opportunity to follow children seen within the hospital, serving as their primary care physicians for these patients from birth onward.

Two pediatric residents practice listening to a patient's heart using a mannequin.

Our outpatient ambulatory training is multidisciplinary, varied and takes place in the largest General Pediatrics practice in northeastern New York. Our practice serves as the de facto home for all complex and critically sick children within a three hour radius and oftentimes receives pediatrician to pediatrician referrals. In addition to outstanding general pediatrics care, our ambulatory faculty also specialize in child abuse, Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, adoption, weight loss, breast feeding, and lead toxicity.

Learn more about the locations within the Albany Med Health System and our surrounding community where our residents can train.