Perinatal Palliative Care Fellowship Unique in the Country

Lurie Children's and Northwestern Memorial Hospital are home to the first-of-its-kind ACGME-approved fellowship track in perinatal palliative care, led by neonatologists Natalia Henner, MD, and Jessica Fry, MD.
The perinatal palliative care fellowship seeks to expand the pool of clinicians planning a career at the nexus of neonatology and palliative care. It aims to develop physicians who have an interest and/or experience in neonatology to provide outstanding palliative care for fetal and neonatal patients with potentially life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. This includes care of parents faced with complex medical decision-making regarding outcomes of pregnancy, pursuit of fetal surgery, development and coordination of complex birth plans, and longitudinal support through perinatal loss or complex intensive care stays.

The fellowship program collaborates with faculty in pediatric and perinatal palliative care, and develops training experiences with multidisciplinary providers from neonatology, maternal-fetal medicine, genetic counseling, family planning, fetal echocardiology, single ventricle cardiology, bronchopulmonary dysplasia team, neonatal neurology, fetal surgery, and many others.

The perinatal palliative care fellowship track is currently in its third year, is attracting competitive applicants, and remains the only one of its kind in the country. 

Leading Perinatal Quality Collaborative to Improve Care

Leslie Caldarelli, MD, from Lurie Children’s serves as the neonatal clinical lead for the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC), providing statewide leadership for high-impact neonatal quality improvement initiatives. In this role, she has been instrumental in advancing several of ILPQC’s statewide neonatal projects, including Mothers & Newborns Affected by Opioids (MNO), Babies Antibiotic Stewardship Improvement Collaborative (BASIC), and the Equity and Safe Sleep for Infants (ESSI) initiative. Across these efforts, Dr. Caldarelli has emphasized standardized, evidence-based care; reliable implementation at scale; and alignment between bedside practice, data, and health equity.

Under her neonatal leadership, ILPQC, working closely with the Illinois Department of Public Health Regionalized Perinatal System, has achieved meaningful, measurable improvements across Illinois. The MNO initiative has supported hospitals in implementing standardized approaches to care for opioid-exposed dyads, improving screening, non-pharmacologic care, and coordination across disciplines. The BASIC work has helped hospitals safely reduce unnecessary antibiotic exposure in newborns while maintaining patient safety through risk assessment and consistent practice. ESSI has advanced respectful safe-sleep education and practices, health related social needs screening and linkage to resources, and collection and dissemination of stratified data to address disparities at Illinois birthing and children's hospitals. Collectively, these initiatives reflect ILPQC’s national reputation as a leading perinatal quality collaborative. ILPQC, under Dr. Caldarelli's leadership, is recognized for translating evidence into practical, scalable structures and tools and for achieving sustained improvements through collaborative learning and quality improvement methodology.