Curriculum

Consult Services 

Fellows rotate through the UMMC and VA Inpatient consult services throughout their training, starting in the fall of their first year of fellowship.  In the first 1-2 months of their first UMMC consultation month, the first-year fellow is paired with a third-year fellow who serves as a mentor in navigating the logistics of this service. 

At UMMC, there are inpatient General GI and Liver consult services and at the VA, there is a smaller inpatient GI/Hepatology consult service.  During rotations on these services, fellows will personally evaluate consultations, develop diagnostic and management plans, round on these patients with the attending and team, document recommendations in consult and follow-up notes, and perform endoscopy on these patients as time allows.  Under the direction of the attending physician at UMMC, fellows also lead a team of trainees including medical residents and occasionally medical students and are responsible for teaching the other learners on the team how to deliver patient-centered, efficient GI/Hepatology consult care within the UMMC system. 

The inpatient consult services provide invaluable exposure to all types of urgent and emergent GI conditions including GI bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease flares, acute liver decompensated cirrhosis and complex endoscopic cases. 

Outpatient Clinical Experience 

The outpatient experience is primarily centered at the UMMC/Belhaven Clinic. All three years of the fellowship have weekly half day continuity clinics at Belhaven.  One 6 month block is dedicated to each of the following clinical areas: hepatology, inflammatory bowel disease, procedural oriented clinic. All clinics also include general GI issues. The remaining three blocks can be used to tailor the experience to your professional goals.  Additionally, there are outpatient clinical experiences in the clinic setting as part of other rotations. 

Procedural Experience 

Due to the volume and breadth of patients seen at UMMC, the procedural experience in our GI fellowship is superb.  Fellows are encouraged to scope inpatients they see on the consult services and the continuity clinic.  At the VA, they scope both inpatients and outpatients. 

Teaching 

Fellows are a very important part of all aspects of teaching at UMMC and the VA.  In addition to bedside teaching of other trainees and the patient on bedside rounds, fellows also assist in formal teaching sessions with residents, medical students, and PA students. 

One major goal of our fellowship is that we train and inspire fellows to learn and teach others throughout their careers, whether those careers are academic, community, or a hybrid of the two.  We recognize that lifelong learning and adaptation to new medical technologies and advancements are major foundations of providing excellent care to patients.  Fellows are expected to learn how to interpret and analyze medical literature and apply this knowledge to their daily practices. 

Our fellowship has one of the highest 20-year ABIM pass rates for any specialty at UMMC.  The amazing clinical, procedural, and didactic experiences offered within the fellowship enable our hard-working, intelligent fellows to excel on the Gastroenterology ABIM Board. 

Call 

Fellows take call for one week at a time throughout their fellowship training, with progressively fewer calls taken as they advance through the years of training.  Faculty members are readily available throughout these calls and supervise any procedures performed on call.  Fellows, faculty, and resident(s) round together on the weekends as well.