Medical Students

Required Critical Care Course

All medical students in their fourth year (MSIV) at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth participate in the Required Critical Care course (RCC).  Designed to introduce students to the basics of adult critical care medicine, the RCC is a four-week block experience in which MSIVs rotate through medical, surgical and neurologic ICUs located at

  • Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center
  • Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital (LBJ)
  • and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Academic faculty from our Divisions of Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine lead a variety of didactic sessions: lectures, problem-solving sessions, SimMan 3G skills sessions, and case-based learning.  Hands-on skills sessions are taught by our critical care fellows and faculty in order to provide the foundation in necessary skills for the following:

  • airway management
  • arterial and central vascular access
  • mechanical ventilation
  • bedside point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS)
  • and bedside invasive procedures.

For more information, please contact:

Brandy McKelvy, M.D., FCCP
Co-Director of RCC
6431 Fannin Street | MSB 1.280 | Houston, Texas 77030
[email protected]

Kha Dinh, M.D.
Co-Director of RCC
6431 Fannin Street | MSB 6.132| Houston, Texas 77030
[email protected]

Pulmonary Elective

McGovern Medical School’s Pulmonary elective for MSIVs affords students the opportunity to obtain broad and valuable experience for inpatient pulmonary medicine.  The elective is offered at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center.  (Rotations at LBJ Hospital may also be available upon request.)  On both campuses, a student will be a member of the pulmonary consult team and work closely with the pulmonary & critical care faculty and fellow.  The majority of patient assessments and evaluations will be on adult patients who may present with a wide variety of respiratory problems.

In addition to increased exposure to the nuanced and specific pulmonary history and examination, MSIVs will have the opportunity to observe lung- and pleura-related procedures, including

  • thoracentesis
  • bronchoscopy
  • pleural biopsy
  • right heart catheterization
  • pulmonary function testing
  • cardiopulmonary exercise testing
  • and chest tube placement.

Students rotating on this elective are invited and highly encouraged to attend all conferences scheduled for the UTHealth Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine fellows, including Grand Rounds, Pathology, and Radiology conferences.

For more information, please contact:

Reeba Mathew, MBBS
Director of Student Clerkships for Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine
6431 Fannin Street | MSB 1.434 | Houston, Texas 77030
713-500-7955 tel | 713-500-6829 fax
[email protected]

Sleep Elective

Sleep Medicine is an emerging subspecialty that deals with variety of sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea (in children and adults), insomnia (e.g. limit setting and psychophysiological insomnia), restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy and neurologic disorders that either affect sleep (e.g. seizure disorders, cerebrovascular accidents and neuromuscular disorders) or are diagnosed during sleep (e.g. REM sleep behavior disorder, central apnea syndromes).

This sub-specialty is unique in that it encompasses knowledge and techniques fundamental to many other specialties (i.e. Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, Otorhinolaryngology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Family Medicine).  A student elective in Sleep Medicine is primarily offered at the Memorial Hermann Hospital Sleep Center, where individual experience in reading and interpreting polysomnograms, conducting positive airway titrations for sleep disordered breathing, multiple sleep latency testing and seizure and REM sleep behavior montages is gained under the direct supervision of the sleep faculty.

Incorporated into the elective is an outpatient experience in evaluating patients referred for a variety of sleep disorders. Students will learn how to take a detailed sleep history and physical and how to manage many sleep disorders.  Clinics occur twice a week:

  • Wednesday afternoons at the UT Professional Building
  • Thursday mornings at the Quentin Mease Community Hospital (which houses the Harris Health Systems Sleep Center and outpatient clinics).

As part of the Sleep Fellowship, we conduct weekly core sleep lectures on Tuesday and a monthly city wide conference, with an outside speaker and attended by many of the related specialties.  At the end of the elective, you would have gained invaluable experience and knowledge that would hopefully contribute to your future career.

For more information, please contact:

Reeba Mathew, MBBS
Director of Student Clerkships for Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine
6431 Fannin Street | MSB 1.434 | Houston, Texas 77030
713-500-7955 tel | 713-500-6829 fax
[email protected]