Visiting Scholar Host Sites

Host Sites are ACPA Approved Teams who have volunteered to host a Visiting Scholar at their institution. Visiting Scholars will only visit teams that are designated Host Sites – no exceptions. The list of Host Sites is approved by the Visiting Scholar Selection Panel on an annual basis.

All ACPA Approved Teams are welcome to apply to become a Host Site. To qualify, teams must be current ACPA Approved Teams and have the capacity to host a scholar for two weeks between the months of February and May. While teams may submit interest throughout the year, only applications received by December 31 may be added to the list of Host Sites for the next Visiting Scholar application cycle.

Current Host Sites

CALIFORNIA

Children’s Hospital of Orange County Craniofacial Team
Orange, California, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
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About the site: Our center is a high volume, quartinary care dedicated pediatric hospital with a well-established interdisciplinary team of cleft and Craniofacial providers. We offer multidisciplinary VPI and jaw surgery clinics and have experts in cleft/craniofacial surgery, orthognathic surgery, microtia (autologous and medpor), rhinoplasty (cleft and preservation), craniofacial distraction, craniosynostosis, gender affirming care, and more. In addition to three fellowship-trained Craniofacial plastic surgeons, our team boasts a dedicated in-house fellowship-trained Craniofacial orthodontist, an OMFS, a Craniofacial neurosurgeon, three cleft trained SLPs, and a pediatric dental team. We utilizing the latest advances in 3-D printing, virtual planning, MRI technology for speech surgery, and augmented reality/virtual reality technologies. Three clinical research coordinators support a host of studies, ranging from the use of artificial intelligence to teach cleft surgery to prospective collection of patient reported outcomes. A large focus of our training program is cost consciousness and resource efficiency, as well as optimizing collaboration for international outreach.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

COLORADO

Children’s Hospital of Colorado Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Program
Aurora, Colorado, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
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About the site: Childrens Hospital Colorado has a longstanding and busy cleft program that has been serving the Rocky Mountain Region (regional program that covers 7 states). The clinic is staffed by both Otolaryngology and Craniofacial Plastic Surgery team members with several years of experience treating children with cleft and craniofacial conditions. In addition, our team has a Craniofacial-trained Orthodontist. Our goal is to create connections and relationships such that our international colleagues may be able to take some of the approaches and practices they’ve observed from our team and apply the approaches that best fit to their own institutions.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology, Pediatrics

OHIO

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Cleft Lip & Palate Center/Center for Complex Craniofacial Disorders
Columbus, Ohio, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
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About the site: Nationwide Children’s Hospital has a comprehensive interdisciplinary team with a vast knowledge base. We can provide a shadowing experience in the sub-specialty while simultaneously enriching the understanding of team care and team dynamics. We have many resources and team members available for the visiting scholar to utilize during and after their visit. Our collaborative team will ensure that the visiting scholar has a comprehensive understanding of care for cleft lip/palate and craniofacial patients.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

ONTARIO

CHEO Cleft Lip/Palate/Craniofacial Team
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Cleft Palate Team

About the site: The plastic surgeons on the CHEO Cleft Palate Team are both involved in global surgery, including in international cleft care. Working with surgeons from around the world, we recognize the value of exchange programs to foster collaborations. We offer comprehensive surgical and non surgical cleft and craniofacial service with multidisciplinary care with Plastic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Nursing, Speech Language Pathology, Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Orthodontics, and can support any aspect of cleft care that the visiting scholars is interested in. They can be involved and observe in all aspects of our cleft team care depending on their area of interest and expertise. We are a French-English Bilingual cleft center, which also gives us the opportunity to host both English and French speaking scholars.

Specialties Accepted: Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

PENNSYLVANIA

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Cleft/Craniofacial Program
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
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About the site: Since its founding, our team has been invested in the multidisciplinary model of care and are eager to promote this model of care globally. Many of our providers in multiple specialties (plastic surgery, ENT, orthodontics, speech) have traveled to various regions of the world for education and clinical care for children with cleft and craniofacial differences and have seen the variability of team care for these conditions. We are eager to support clinicians in establishing team care, building global relationships with our center, and sharing our protocols, knowledge, and skills to improve the quality of care and promote better outcomes globally. Our center sees a high volume of patients and performs a high volume of surgical cases across all ages and across the full spectrum of severity and clinical conditions. We can provide a diverse experience for the fellow to match their specialty and interests.

Features of our center that augment the cleft and craniofacial team include 1) a separate VPD program run jointly by plastic surgery and speech pathology that meets 2x monthly and sees a broad spectrum of patients with VPD and performs nasoendocopic imaging in clinic and videofluoroscopy in radiology 2) a high volume orthodontic program that offers nasoalveolar molding for infants, and collaborates in a high volume of orthognathic cases with virtual planning, 3) a high volume 22q11.2 center run by genetics that involves specialties across the hospital. 4) multiple clinical sites including a large urban inpatient pediatric hospital, urban out-patient clinic, suburban secondary inpatient pediatric hospital, multiple suburban specialty care centers, and ongoing telemedicine practices.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

TENNESSEE

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Cleft and Craniofacial Program
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
View Website

About the site: We are a unique program in that have we a great collaboration and partnership between Plastic Surgery and ENT – in creating one unified team at VUMC. Our Department is keen to develop ongoing, sustainable collaborations both with other individuals and centers well beyond our borders. We also are unique in that our program spans all ages, and beyond 21, we often see older patients with cleft and craniofacial differences on the adult side.

The pillars of the Visiting Scholar experience would be 1) operations 2) innovation 3) education, within these three buckets the goals would be a high-volume and broad clinical experience( OR and team clinics) — but also being able to peer into the window of ‘operations’ behind a cleft/cranio team- with access to our team PA, coordinator, manager and admin lead. We have a robust research program and the Scholar would be able to attend weekly research meetings and contribute. As for Education, during their visit the Scholar would have access to the full didactic curriculum of the multiple Departments to complement their hands on learning. As for breadth of Cleft approach- we have the benefit of multiple faculty that have trained at different institutions — so the Scholar would be availed for seeing different ways to approach the same clefts for example. We also have a high volume of craniosynostosis cases and perform both endoscopic assisted and open, along with distraction and thus the Scholar would have full exposure to this. Our NAM practice is quite busy as well, and the Scholar would also have full access to NAM clinics and see how impressions are taken and adjustments made.

Specialties Accepted: Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Craniofacial Surgery, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

TEXAS

Dell Children’s Craniofacial and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Center
Austin, Texas, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
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About the site: We have the largest Cleft and Craniofacial team in central Texas which would provide a good volume and variety of patients for visiting scholars. Our program has been established for nearly 2 decades and our multidisciplinary team is a wonderful example of the collaborative efforts needed and challenges to take care of patients with craniofacial differences. We have a craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery fellowship with a history of training international surgeons. In addition to busy clinics and surgeries, we do have multiple established virtual meetings which enhances our multidisciplinary care such as complex airway conference with ENT, sleep medicine/pulmonary, plastics, and orthodontics. Additionally, we have weekly meetings to review virtual surgical planning of patients for complex craniofacial reconstruction and orthognathic surgery.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Orthodontics, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

Fogelson Plastic Surgery and Craniofacial Center for Children
Dallas, Texas, USA
Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team
View Website

About the site: As a busy tertiary facility, we would be able to provide a 360-degree exposure to a multi-disciplinary team that provides excellent and comprehensive cleft and craniofacial care. We can provide a complete overview of the inner working of a multi-disciplinary team and the specialized care our team provides to patients with craniofacial differences, from birth to adulthood. Our surgeons have clinically adapted to the newest techniques in cleft and craniofacial care and would provide exposure to these surgical methods, including virtual surgical planning, cranial distraction, limited strip craniectomy, Medpor ear reconstruction and buccal mucosal flaps. Our speech therapists would provide the scholar with access to our newborn cleft feeding clinic and observation of the specialized palatal imaging they obtain for patients with velopharyngeal dysfunction. Our orthodontist would provide the latest techniques in Naso-alveolar Molding (NAM) and cleft orthodontia treatment. The oral surgeon, orthodontist, and prosthodontist on our team would provide treatment options for dental implants for congenitally missing teeth. Our facility also has a state-of-the-art research and imaging center located in our clinic where 3D/4D imaging is obtained and models created.

Specialties Accepted: Craniofacial Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing/Care Coordination, Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Speech-Language Pathology

Current Host Sites

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