Pediatrics Residency
Welcome and thank you for your interest in the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatrics Residency Program at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital! Located in one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest, we are nationally ranked in eight pediatric sub-specialties by U.S. News and World Report and offer a complete educational and clinical experience in our state-of-the-art, free-standing, children’s hospital.
We hope the following information is useful to you. Thank you again for considering us for your residency training and please feel free to contact us with questions
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A Hospital Built for Pediatric Care
As the only free standing children’s hospital in western Michigan, we see a high volume of patients from all over our diverse region. With our affiliation with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, we have the opportunity to work with leading experts in pediatric research and education, while keeping our community-feel throughout our residency program and children’s hospital.
From the Program Directors
What do you want to be known for when you leave residency? Compassion? Curiosity? Courage?
When you join the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatrics Residency Program at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, you will be joining a group of stellar pediatricians-in-training who, along with Spectrum Health have identified these as the values that they want to be known for. As program directors, we recognize that cultivating these values is our compass!
With these values as our guide, we strive to become a community that is inclusive and innovative to impact the health of the children of West Michigan and beyond.
Inclusive
Inclusivity is a mandate. Our residency program tackles the tough questions of race and justice while also actively recruiting residents who represent the community. We are supported by Spectrum Health diversity and inclusion work along with the work of our pediatric diversity and inclusion committee. Through educational events, advocacy projects, candid conversations and intentional recruiting, our goal is to recruit, support and retain a diverse community of residents.
Inclusive also means listening to the needs of each individual resident. We are proud to support a medium sized program which means that leadership and attendings know each of the residents by name. We have created five curriculum tracks that support educational goals and include a scholar track that is customizable – recent scholars include global health, lifestyle medicine and medical education scholars. In your third year, we give every resident a half-day a week to explore their own career interests. Scholarly activity and advocacy activity is individualized and supported by mentors from a community of 300 pediatric physicians representing over 50 subspecialties.
Innovative
Innovative means thinking about pediatrics in the future. Along with robust fulfillment of board requirements and board preparation, we provide curriculum for pediatricians to serve as leaders within their communities well into the future. We begin your education with intern immersion and advocacy – a month long rotation which places general pediatrics at the start of your education. This is followed by higher acuity complex care rotations in your second year along with unique leadership electives in your third year that will prepare you for the next wave of practice.
Unique elective experiences including skills, resident-as-teacher, parenting, research, Spectrum Health Innovations, culinary medicine and business of medicine (to name a few), each elective allows you to explore the aspects of pediatric medicine that may not necessarily be tested by the boards, but that are critical to your success.
Impact
None of this would matter if we did not accomplish our ultimate goal – impacting the health of the children of West Michigan. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital strives to be the safest children’s hospital in the country and has been recognized as a tertiary and quaternary referral destination serving a wide region. With our level 4 NICU, cardiac and neuro ICUs, award winning cardiology program, personalized genomics, wireless EEG monitoring systems, busy emergency department, seven pediatric fellowship programs and research facilities including Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Van Andel Institute, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has earned US News and World Report rankings for providing excellent pediatric care.
Inclusive. Innovative. Impactful. This is our mission. None of this would be possible without the amazing teamwork and compassion that we all have for each other. When we ask residents why they came here to train, they list everything above along with the beautiful facilities and vibrant and accessible community of Grand Rapids but, at the end of the day, they will all universally say, it’s the people!
We will continue to host virtual interviews in this upcoming season to promote inclusivity and safety. We look forward to meeting you this way in the upcoming recruitment season. See you soon!
Sincerely,
Kira, Justin and Raj
When you join the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatrics Residency Program at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, you will be joining a group of stellar pediatricians-in-training who, along with Spectrum Health have identified these as the values that they want to be known for. As program directors, we recognize that cultivating these values is our compass!
With these values as our guide, we strive to become a community that is inclusive and innovative to impact the health of the children of West Michigan and beyond.
Inclusive
Inclusivity is a mandate. Our residency program tackles the tough questions of race and justice while also actively recruiting residents who represent the community. We are supported by Spectrum Health diversity and inclusion work along with the work of our pediatric diversity and inclusion committee. Through educational events, advocacy projects, candid conversations and intentional recruiting, our goal is to recruit, support and retain a diverse community of residents.
Inclusive also means listening to the needs of each individual resident. We are proud to support a medium sized program which means that leadership and attendings know each of the residents by name. We have created five curriculum tracks that support educational goals and include a scholar track that is customizable – recent scholars include global health, lifestyle medicine and medical education scholars. In your third year, we give every resident a half-day a week to explore their own career interests. Scholarly activity and advocacy activity is individualized and supported by mentors from a community of 300 pediatric physicians representing over 50 subspecialties.
Innovative
Innovative means thinking about pediatrics in the future. Along with robust fulfillment of board requirements and board preparation, we provide curriculum for pediatricians to serve as leaders within their communities well into the future. We begin your education with intern immersion and advocacy – a month long rotation which places general pediatrics at the start of your education. This is followed by higher acuity complex care rotations in your second year along with unique leadership electives in your third year that will prepare you for the next wave of practice.
Unique elective experiences including skills, resident-as-teacher, parenting, research, Spectrum Health Innovations, culinary medicine and business of medicine (to name a few), each elective allows you to explore the aspects of pediatric medicine that may not necessarily be tested by the boards, but that are critical to your success.
Impact
None of this would matter if we did not accomplish our ultimate goal – impacting the health of the children of West Michigan. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital strives to be the safest children’s hospital in the country and has been recognized as a tertiary and quaternary referral destination serving a wide region. With our level 4 NICU, cardiac and neuro ICUs, award winning cardiology program, personalized genomics, wireless EEG monitoring systems, busy emergency department, seven pediatric fellowship programs and research facilities including Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Van Andel Institute, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has earned US News and World Report rankings for providing excellent pediatric care.
Inclusive. Innovative. Impactful. This is our mission. None of this would be possible without the amazing teamwork and compassion that we all have for each other. When we ask residents why they came here to train, they list everything above along with the beautiful facilities and vibrant and accessible community of Grand Rapids but, at the end of the day, they will all universally say, it’s the people!
We will continue to host virtual interviews in this upcoming season to promote inclusivity and safety. We look forward to meeting you this way in the upcoming recruitment season. See you soon!
Sincerely,
Kira, Justin and Raj
Welcome from the Chiefs
Welcome to the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatrics Residency Program at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital! We are excited that you are considering our program and cannot wait to share the many aspects that make it an excellent choice for your residency training. Read more about why we think Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is the perfect fit for you.
From left: Daniel Borman, MD, Matt Vosters, MD and David Ashen-Garry, DO
The Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is a state-of-art, free-standing children's hospital and Level I trauma center. The Gerber Foundation Neonatal Center at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is Michigan's largest neonatal center and the fifth largest in the nation with more than 1,300 babies admitted annually.
Like most pediatrics facilities, we practice a family-centered rounding style. Our continuity clinic experience is unique in that we have the option of spending one half-day per week of the third year in a clinical setting of your choosing, whether a private practice primary care clinic, a community clinic, a subspecialty clinic, or even a hospitalist or critical care role. At Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, we truly care about individualizing your education to help you reach your professional goals. As such, we offer several curriculum tracks.
Within each track, multiple electives can be selected based on your interests and goals. Here is a sampling of the electives we offer:
Like most pediatrics facilities, we practice a family-centered rounding style. Our continuity clinic experience is unique in that we have the option of spending one half-day per week of the third year in a clinical setting of your choosing, whether a private practice primary care clinic, a community clinic, a subspecialty clinic, or even a hospitalist or critical care role. At Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, we truly care about individualizing your education to help you reach your professional goals. As such, we offer several curriculum tracks.
Within each track, multiple electives can be selected based on your interests and goals. Here is a sampling of the electives we offer:
| Advanced EM | Cardiology | Global Health | Orthopedics | Radiology |
| Allergy and Immunology | Center for Child Protection (CCP) | Healthy Weight Center | Palliative Care | Research |
| Anesthesiology | Culinary Medicine | Hospitalist | Pathology | Rheumatology |
| Antimicrobial Stewardship Program | Dermatology | Medical Examiner | PM&R | Sedation |
| Bone Marrow Transplant | Education Leadership | Medical Genetics | Primary Care Experience (PCE) | Sports Medicine |
| Burn | Endocrinology | Nephrology | Psychiatry | Surgery |
| Business of Medicine | ENT | Neurology | Pulmonology | Toxicology |
| Cardiothoracic Surgery | Gastroenterology | Ophthalmology | Quality Improvement | Urology |
Didactics
Our faculty is dedicated to your learning whether in a clinical setting or through our various didactics.
| Monday | Morning report |
| Tuesday | Grand Rounds or Morbidity and Mortality Conference |
| Wednesday | Multi-Disciplinary Case Conference led by an intern with small group discussion of differential and workup plans with input from various subspecialists depending on the case |
| Thursday | Protected didactics 1200-1600 consisting of board review Q&As, mock codes, journal clubs, and an 18-month lecture series given by sub-specialty faculty based on Nelson’s with a focus on ABP general pediatrics learning objectives. |
| Friday | Morning report, Psychiatry Rounds, QI/Safety Rounds, or the ever popular Infectious Disease Bug Bowl |
Scholarly activity at Spectrum Health spans the continuum of medicine and includes translational research, medical education, quality and safety, and advocacy projects and initiatives. Our faculty members are experts in their field and have a vast array of scholarly interests. Residents who are interest in presenting or publishing their work can pursue those goals while being mentored by a faculty member.
Below is a partial list of conferences and journals that our residents and faculty have presented at or been published in over the past few years.
Conferences
Journals
Below is a partial list of conferences and journals that our residents and faculty have presented at or been published in over the past few years.
Conferences
- Academic Pediatric Association Region V Conference
- American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Thoracic Society
- Adolescent Health Initiative
- Association of Pediatric Program Directors
- Endocrine Society
- Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
- North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
- Pediatric Academic Society
- Pediatric Endocrine Society
- Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine
- Society of Hospitalist Medicine
- The Generalists in Medical Education
Journals
- Academic Medicine
- Blood Advances
- BMC Health Services Research
- Congenital Heart Disease
- Critical Care Medicine
- Genetic Medicine
- International Journal of Cancer
- JAMA Pediatrics
- Journal of Adolescent Health
- Journal of Clinical Immunology
- Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Journal of Pediatrics
- Journal of Pediatric Infectious Disease Society
- Kidney International
- Medical Education
- NeoReviews
- Obesity
- Pediatrics
- Pediatric Annals
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
- Pediatric Neurology
- Physiologic Genomics
Application Requirements
Applications and the following documents are accepted only throughthe Electronic Residency Application Service
We require:
We require:
- Excellent communication skills
- MD applicants should have scores of 205 or higher on both Step 1 and Step 2 of the USMLE
- DO applicants should have scores of 550 of higher on both COMLEX 1 and 2
- Must pass the CS exam on the first attempt
- Recent clinical experience within the United States
- Applicants must have graduated medical school within the last three years
- All candidates must possess U.S. work authorization or be eligible for J-1 status
Step 2 exam results are encouraged, but not required prior to your interview. Results for Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS exam must be available to be considered for ranking.
Pictured: Julie Beute, Kimberly Longstreet and Sue Heinz
Pediatric Residency Program Coordinators
Salary and Benefits
All visiting medical student applications must be submitted through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunitiesprogram (formerly known as VSAS). The Spectrum Health course catalog for rotation opportunities starting in July for the next academic year will be posted in March. Applications will be accepted starting April 1.
Spectrum Health provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.
Meet Our Core Faculty
Learn more about our faculty at www.phd.msu.edu.
Chief Residents
Class of 2023
Class of 2022
Class of 2021
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Get to know our residents
Our residents are a diverse group from a variety of backgrounds with unique experiences and interests. We look forward to getting to know you as well!