The BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine offers a fellowship for physicians interested in Retrieval, Critical Care Transport and Helicopter EMS (HEMS) with the UW Health Med Flight program. The fellowship provides the experience necessary to prepare future HEMS medical directors for this complex role.
Founded in 1985, UW Health Med Flight is among the most highly recognized and established critical care transport services in the country and among the few that have flown full-time with a physician-nurse-pilot flight crew configuration since day one. Med Flight’s long history and its status as a model for programs across the country pairs with the University of Wisconsin’s well-regarded and fully accredited EM residency program to form the foundation for the fellowship.
The one-year fellowship is primarily aimed at individuals interested in building their academic and administrative expertise by focusing on the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the medical direction of a HEMS program. The rapid expansion of helicopter programs in the U.S. over the last decade necessitates a strong need for experienced medical direction. Medical directors oversee these programs to ensure that staff is properly trained and appropriate medical utilization of HEMS programs is being followed.
A primary component of this fellowship is flight experience. In order to be effective, HEMS program medical directors must understand the capabilities and limitations of the environment in which flight crews work. This is true for both the aviation and medical aspects of the program. Many residents may find themselves matched to EM programs that offer either no flight experience or very limited ride-along experiences that do not provide adequate background to be effective. This fellowship provides significant flight experience by placing the fellow as the sole flight physician responsible for patient care in our nurse-pilot-physician flight team.
While critical, flight experience is just one facet of the fellowship. Clinical experience is supplemented with adequate grounding in the administrative, academic and research components of both flight and emergency medicine programs at a major academic medical center. The Med Flight fellowship includes training in all of these areas.
Our fellows also participate in Medical Director courses at AMTC’s annual conference and take part in the collaborative and translational research available at the nationally regarded University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
» Compensation & Benefits
Comprehensive health and supplemental benefits and a competitive salary are offered. Fellows are also eligible to receive financial support to attend relevant educational courses, conferences, or to use toward a graduate degree.
Program Details
Available Positions: 1-2
Program Length: 1 year
Start Date: July 1, 2026
NRMP Match: No
Appointment: Clinical Instructor
Moonlighting: Available
What is it like to complete a fellowship in Retrieval and Critical Care Transport?
Med Flight Fellow Dr. Matthew Stampfl gives an informative interview about his experience with the American College of Emergency Physicians – ACEP’s Young Physicians Section.
Dr. Stampfl, a graduate of our three-year emergency medicine residency (Class of 2022), takes us on a journey that gives us a clearer picture of a typical day, his perspectives about the program the UW Health Med Flight fellowship program and what makes it unique from other helicopter EMS fellowships, and some words of advice for individuals considering applying to the program.
About Med Flight
UW Health Med Flight is a premier air and ground critical care transport and retrieval service that has served the upper Midwest for nearly 40 years. Offering the highest level of critical care transport in the Midwest, Med Flight is an integral resource for our hospital system and region, capable of safely moving critically ill patients from scene to hospital and between hospital facilities.
Med Flight operates 24/7/365 out of three regional bases and logs more than 2,300 total transports per year via three EC-145 aircraft and two critical care ambulances. Our program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) and has long been recognized in air medical circles for its success in providing one of the safest air medical transport services in the country.
We partner with leading FAA-certified and industry-accredited Metro Aviation, Inc. to maintain, operate and pilot all aircraft, and we are one of only a few programs in the country to transport with a licensed physician routinely on board. Our ground ambulances transport patients of any age and are equipped as mobile ICU/NICU, and we also operate a busy air and ground Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Transport and Organ and Tissue Donation (OTD) programs.
Our Faculty & Crew
The Fellow will work closely with an expert team of emergency medicine physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and specialty providers with critical care training to provide adult and pediatric critical care transport. As HEMS leaders, our faculty are active in national and international societies and organizations, and include a former president of the Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA) and former physician consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation Advisory Committee on Aeromedical Transport Billing. Our faculty also serve as instructors in the U.K.’s renowned Anaesthesia Trauma & Critical Care (ATACC) course, the most advanced trauma course available worldwide, are engaged in research advancing the science of prehospital medicine, and have flown with the the world-leading London Air Ambulance service.
The UW Health System
Med Flight’s clinical operations are housed within UW Health, the integrated health system of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. UW Health’s University Hospital is a busy Level I Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center, Certified Burn Center, Comprehensive Stroke Center, and Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Certified Center with numerous specialty clinics. For the 12th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” ranked University of Wisconsin Hospitals, which includes University Hospital and East Madison Hospital, as No. 1 in Wisconsin.
Fellowship Director
Ryan Newberry, DO, MPH
Assistant Medical Director, UW Health Med Flight
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
A native of northwestern Illinois, Dr. Newberry was a firefighter/paramedic for the Freeport and Rockford, Ill. fire departments as well as a critical care flight paramedic for OSF LifeLine Helicopter prior to attending the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. He is a graduate of the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium emergency medicine residency program at Brooke Army Medical Center, where he completed subsequent fellowships in EMS and Disaster Medicine.
Dr. Newberry holds board certifications in both Emergency Medicine and EMS and has experience working in both community settings and academic medical centers. He maintained a strong interest in prehospital medicine throughout his military career, serving as the program director of the Military EMS and Disaster Fellowship in San Antonio, TX, as well as an associate medical director for the UT Health Emergency Health Sciences Office of the Medical Director and the San Antonio Fire Department from 2016-2022.
In additional to his accomplishments domestically, Dr. Newberry was also the first American to complete the flight physician secondment (fellowship) with the world-renown London’s Air Ambulance, as well as the first international candidate to challenge and complete the U.K.’s Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) selection course. A combat veteran, Dr. Newberry completed several deployments with U.S. Army Forward Resuscitation and Surgical Teams, as well as a tour with the British Army.
In addition to his clinical and teaching roles, Dr. Newberry actively engages in scholarship. His research interests include advanced trauma procedures, cardiac arrest resuscitation, damage control resuscitation, and mass casualty incident response.
Email: rknewber@medicine.wisc.edu
Twitter: @UWMedFlight
Prior Fellows
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Matthew Stampfl, MD (2022-2023)
Dr. Stampfl obtained his medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and completed the Ethics and Global Health Pathways. He then completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Stampfl’s clinical interests include critical care, medical lecturing, and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
AWARDS & HONORS
• Essentials of Emergency Medicine/Hippo EM Education Fellow (2022)
• Commendation for Excellence in Scholarship, BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine (2021)
• Resident Representative, Wisconsin chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians Board of Directors (2021-2022)
Zachary Forcade, MD (2021-2022)
Dr. Forcade obtained his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine where he completed the Rural and Underserved in Medicine Pathway. He then completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin where he also served as chief resident. Dr. Forcade’s clinical interests include critical care, underserved populations, and prehospital medicine.
Madison Tustian, MD (2021-2022)
Dr. Tustian completed medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit before completing emergency medicine residency here at the University of Wisconsin. Her clinical interests include critical care transport and ultrasound.
Allie Hurst, MD, MS (2020-2021)
Dr. Irene “Allie” Hurst is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) physician and flight physician consultant with UW Med Flight. She completed her pediatric residency training at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago with Northwestern University, a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Colorado through the University of Colorado, and a Med Flight and critical care transport fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. She also completed a graduate degree in clinical research at The Dartmouth Institute prior to starting medical school.
Her research interests focus on adolescent health, specifically child sex trafficking and substance abuse. She became interested in Med Flight during her PEM fellowship in Colorado and has interests in pediatric critical care retrieval/transport education and operations.
Dr. Hurst’s interests outside of work include bicycle racing, cooking, and surfing Lake Michigan.
Prior to 2020
Eric Ohlrogge, MD (2020-21)
Jordan Imoehl, MD (2019-20)
Nick Lepa, MD (2019-20)
Britton Hopkins, MD (2018-19)
Conrad Williamson, MD (2018-19)
Brian Jennett, MD (2017-18)
Andrew Cathers, MD (2015-16)
Cynthia Griffin, DO (2014-15)
Ashley Brown, MD (2012-13)
Sabina Modelska, MD (2011-12)
How to Apply
Email your CV, a personal statement detailing your research interests and career aspirations, and 2-3 letters of recommendation to Dr. Ryan Newberry at rknewber@medicine.wisc.edu.
Candidates must have graduated in good standing from an ACGME-accredited emergency medicine residency program and must be board-certified or board-eligible in emergency medicine by the time of employment.