Educational Purpose and Rationale

Two gastroenterology fellows in each of the three years receive an abundance of practical clinical experience and develop complete gastrointestinal consultative and endoscopic skills within the framework of the clinical fellowship. Fellows learn about the indications and contraindications for various gastrointestinal procedures, become familiar with the basic literature of the subspecialty and gain skills in researching patient cases in great detail.

During this program, fellows perform clinical research studies and are expected to present results at national meetings and publish in peer reviewed journals. Fellows also develop presentation skills during conferences: these presentations sometimes involve obtaining more detailed knowledge of the literature than a routine consultation might. Trainees present interesting and complex cases twice a month at GI conference.

Patient Characteristics and Clinical Encounters

The section of gastroenterology is involved in many research studies and clinical trials dealing with chronic hepatitis C, chronic hepatitis B, cirrhosis, nonalcoholic stearohepatitis, helicobacter pylori, colon cancer, small bowel enteroscopy, virtual colonoscopy and many other subjects in gastroenterology.

GI fellows and staff attend a weekly gastroenterology clinic held every Thursday and a hepatology clinic held every other Tuesday. These clinics give the opportunity for the long term follow up of patients with chronic gastrointestinal problems and for the evaluation of the more acute problems where a thorough diagnostic approach is often necessary to completely evaluate these patients.