Pediatric gastroenterology fellowship

The program provides 12 months of clinical training including both inpatient and outpatient consultations. Most clinical experiences occur in the first year of the fellowship to provide an exceptional foundation in the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal and hepatology diseases. The first year includes an average of eight to nine months on the inpatient service which includes the consultation service, where fellows supervise medical students, interns, and residents. The curriculum is flexible and can be tailored to suit individual interests, mainly through two months of elective/research time. Potential electives include neuro-gastroenterology, radiology, pathology, and pediatric surgery.

Rotations on the inpatient service have supervision provided by a pediatric gastroenterology faculty member. Fellows are provided graduated autonomy as they gain increased knowledge and experience. Fellows are the first point of contact for new consultation requests, admissions, follow-up questions, as well as calls from community-based pediatricians. This includes overnight pager call 1 night per week when on call over the weekend and 2 times when not on call over the weekend. Fellows are never required to take in-house night call. During inpatient rotations, fellows have at least one day off per week on average.

For all three-years of training, fellows participate in a continuity clinic experience in the outpatient setting. This clinic allows the fellow to provide follow-up for patients seen on the inpatient service. Additionally, this clinic provides an opportunity to see new patients with undifferentiated illnesses as referrals from general pediatricians or other subspecialists.

This half-day per week clinic is supervised by attending pediatric gastroenterology physicians. Fellows also have ½ day per week for endoscopies. Fellows are also expected to participate in all in-patient endoscopies.

The second and third years of the fellowship are devoted primarily to the pursuit of scholarship, with fellows spending one to two months per year on the inpatient service.

In accordance with ACGME requirements, the pediatric gastroenterology training program at CHoR provides up to 24 months of research experience. During the first year, each fellow is given time to explore research opportunities throughout CHoR and VCU Medical Center and to identify a research mentor in the basic or clinical sciences. Many research opportunities exist within the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, but fellows are also encouraged to consider research mentors in a variety of other basic science and clinical departments within the university according to individual interests.

The second and third year give the fellows the opportunity to pursue a focused research project. During this protected research time, the fellow is expected to gain experience designing and conducting hypothesis-driven research and submitting a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Trainees are encouraged to attend regional or national meetings for educational experiences and present their research.

The Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology convenes weekly for a clinical conference to discuss recent inpatient and outpatient consultations, research updates, case presentations, journal reviews, mortality and morbidity conferences and joint conferences with radiology and pediatric surgery. This conference also provides a forum for reviewing and evaluating medical literature on topics pertinent to these cases, for discussions regarding systems-based practice and to provide practice-based learning and improvement. The fellow directing the inpatient consultation service is responsible for preparing and presenting selected cases at this conference.

Several additional conferences are shared with the other fellowship programs.

The American Board of Pediatrics allows combined fellowships with other ACGME accredited fellowships in Pediatrics. The Department of Pediatrics and subspecialty fellowship directors are open to these types of programs which would be individualized to the applicant and their career goals. Interested dual fellowship applicants should contact the program directors for both programs to explore options.