Clinical Ultrasound

History of the Clinical Ultrasound Fellowship

The UCLA Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship was started by Carmen Partida in 2010, who served as fellowship director until 2012. Alan Chiem and Dan Weingrow restarted the fellowship in 2013 and co-directed the program until 2021. In 2021, the UCLA EM POCUS Fellowship and the Harbor-UCLA POCUS Fellowship combined, along with integrating the VA Health System, to form the All-UCLA Clinical and Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship. Teresa Liu served as inaugural director from 2021-23, with Jackie Shibata serving as the current fellowship director. 

Program Information 

The UCLA-Affiliated Clinical Ultrasound Fellowship is a two-year fellowship with preference for graduates from four-year ACGME accredited Emergency Medicine residencies. Two positions are available each year. Select one-year fellowship positions may be available to candidates with advanced training. 

The UCLA-Affiliated CUS offers a distinctive combination of county and quaternary care settings through FOUR unique sites. It affords its fellows the opportunity to work with ultrasound in a setting of limited resources for a medically underserved community, as well as the luxury of state-of-the-art technology and facilities to develop cutting edge ultrasound skills, like TEE and regional anesthesia. The fellowship involves education and instruction in the development of an ultrasound program, research experience, and a variety of teaching opportunities at the hospitals and within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 

The mission of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship is to develop motivated emergency physicians into clinicians, educators and researchers with ultrasound expertise. Our major strengths are in advanced echocardiography, critical care, and medical education. Fellows lead bedside ultrasound sessions with emergency medicine and off-service residents, medical students, and attending physicians. In addition, there are opportunities to lecture on ultrasound topics at residency conferences, regional conferences, and abroad. 

Institutions

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (RRMC) is located at the southern end of the beautiful UCLA campus in Westwood. It is a state-of-the-art 520 bed academic medical center that offers a full range of medical and surgical services from primary to sub-specialty care. The one million-plus square foot, 10-story structure encompasses the operations of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and the Mattel Children's Hospital. UCLA is consistently rated in the top 10 medical centers in the country by US News and World Report. The 41-bed Emergency Department treats 52,000 patients per year and serves as a Level 1 Trauma center, as well as Comprehensive Stroke, STEMI, and Pediatric Critical Care center.

Street view of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is a public safety net hospital serving the two million residents living in the San Fernando Valley, located at the northern section of Los Angeles County. OV-UCLA is a major teaching affiliate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with medical students, residents, and fellows spending a significant portion of their training at OV-UCLA. Residents of the UCLA Emergency Medicine residency program spend 50% of their training at OV-UCLA. The hospital has 377 beds, while the 25,000 square foot Emergency Department, which was built in 2011, has 51 beds. The ED census is roughly 60,000 patients per year. The majority of patients are working poor, immigrants, and/or primarily Spanish-speaking.

A street view of the Olive View Hospital

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is crucial safety net hospital serving more than 700,000 residents in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Our high-volume, high-acuity Emergency Department sees approximately 90,000 annual patient visits from a largely underserved population. It is the only Level 1 Trauma Center, Pediatric Trauma Center, Pediatric Critical Medical Center, Disaster Resource Center, Stroke Center, Academic STEMI Receiving Center, and Nursing and Paramedic Training Center in the South Bay of Los Angeles. In addition to its essential role in patient care, Harbor-UCLA is a key teaching hospital for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and has a decades-long history of advancing medical science and care delivery.

Street view of the Harbor Hospital

West Los Angeles VA Medical Center

West LA VA Medical Center (VAMC) is part of the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System and affiliated with UCLA. The full-service ED is staffed by full-time emergency physicians with UCLA faculty appointments and provides supervision and medical education for UCLA residents of multiple specialties as well as medical students from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Street view West Los Angeles VA Medical Center

Educational Objectives

  • To prepare our fellows to become successful leaders in clinical emergency medicine ultrasonography by providing comprehensive training, academic mentorship, and abundant opportunities for faculty development in a variety of clinical settings, all supported by university (UCLA) resources. To uphold the highest standards of practice, education, and academic investigation in clinical ultrasonography for the betterment of our patients, trainees, and medical specialty.

Experience

UCLA-Affiliated Clinical Ultrasound Fellows:

  • Are academic faculty of two stellar Emergency Medicine residencies (Harbor-UCLA and UCLA Ronald Reagan/Olive View) and for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
  • Learn from 7 core POCUS faculty, with a wide range of interests, experience, and ongoing projects.
  • Pursue a subsidized Masters program or advanced fellowship at UCLA (most commonly in research, medical education, public policy or public health).
  • Learn to become leaders in our subspecialty through practice (our scans affects clinical decisions and are loaded directly into PACS), teaching (including bedside, conferences/meetings, and simulation sessions), administration (e.g. weekly QA/QI, machine maintenance), program development (e.g. at the VA Hospital, or the TEE program at Harbor), and clinical investigation (of your choice!), while being mentored by national leaders in POCUS.

Clinical

  • Fellows work average of 8 clinical shifts per month (shifts 7-9 hours in duration).

Core (all fellowship trained):

  • Zahir Basrai, MD: APD of Wellness & Compliance
  • Alan Chiem, MD: APD of Education
  • Timothy Jang, MD: APD of Administration and Board Preparation
  • Y. Teresa Liu, MD
  • Jackie Shibata, MD: Program Director
  • William Shyy, MD
  • Manpreet Singh, MD: APD of Recruitment & Social Media
  • Dan Weingrow, DO: APD of Quality Assurance & EMR

Supporting:

  • Kareem Agunbiade, MD: US fellowship trained
  • Lilly Bellman, MD: PEM & US fellowship trained
  • Jonathan Birnbaum, MD: Practice pathway
  • Sheetal Khiyani, MD: PEM & US fellowship trained
  • George Lim, MD: US & Critical Care fellowship trained
  • Amir Tabibnia, MD: US fellowship trained
  • Eleanor Oakley, MD: US & Toxicology fellowship trained
  • Mike Peterson, MD: US fellowship trained
  • UCLA employee with health (medical, dental, disability) and retirement benefits
  • Competitive annual salary
  • Subsidized support for Master's program
  • CME allowance
  • Four weeks of vacation

More information regarding the Fellowship, along with details about the application process, can be found on the EUS Fellowship website.

We are accepting both year 1 and year 2 fellows

Please contact us for further questions.

Jackie Shibata, MD
Fellowship Director
jackieshibata@gmail.com

Nathalia Rodriguez
Fellowship Coordinator
Department of Emergency Medicine
1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA, 90024
nathaliaerodriguez@mednet.ucla.edu

Applicant Requirements

  • Graduation from a 4-year ACGME accredited Emergency Medicine Residency training program.
  • Eligible to obtain a California Medical License.

Current Fellows

Moudi Hubeishy, MD
Jon Warren, MD
Aida Martinez, MD (IM fellow)

Fellowship Alumni

Jeremy Shin, MD, 2022-2024
Erica Kiemele-Giss, MD, 2021-2023
Aubrey Ferguson, MD, 2020-2022
Kareem Agunbiade, MD, 2020-2021
Will White, MD, 2019-2021 (PEM/US)
Amir Tabibnia, MD, 2019-2020
Lilly Bellman, MD, 2017-2020 (PEM/US)
Sheetal Khiyani-Bharadwaj, MD, 2017-2020 (PEM/US)
Jackie Shibata, MD, 2016-2018
Andrea Takemoto, MD, 2017-2018
Caleb Canders, MD, 2016-2017
George Lim, MD, 2015-2016
Manpreet Singh, MD, 2015-2016
Stephanie Tseeng, MD, 2014-2015
Eleanor Oakley, MD, 2013-2015
Pablo Aguilera, MD, 2014-2015
Ricky Amii, MD, 2013-2014