Program Highlights
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Welcome to UCSD's Gastroenterology Fellowship Program
The goal of UCSD Gastroenterology Fellowship Program is to teach trainees to master the basic clinical and endoscopic/procedural skills required to act as a consultant to patients with general gastroenterology and hepatology diseases and to acquire skills necessary for the critical evaluation and interpretation of basic and/or clinical research in the field.
We offer two training tracks. A clinical track which is meant for training gastroenterologists who will purse clinical academic careers, which may also include a fourth year advanced fellowship (i.e., advanced endoscopy, transplant hepatology, inflammatory bowel disease, motility). The research track funded by a NIH T32-funded training grant, which is meant to train physician-scientists who will pursue future NIH-funded research in either clinical or basic sciences. Typically there are nine fellows on the clinical track and three research track on the research track.
Each fellow is required to complete 18 months of direct patient care activities in the subspecialty of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and 36 months of weekly continuity clinic. Fellows usually complete 12 months of inpatient clinical consult rotations during the first year of fellowship. The second and third years of fellowship are a combination of clinical (at least 6 months) and research rotations, depending on whether the fellow is in the clinical or NIH-funded T32 research training grant tract. The continuity clinic experience is evenly divided between GI and Liver Clinics with patients being seen at UCSD and the VA Medical Center. In addition, all fellows are expected to attend the core conferences during all three years of training.
One of the most important aspects of our clinical felllowship program is the diversity of educational opportunities while fellows rotate through a variety of clinical settings. The UCSD Medical Center Hillcrest rotation is where fellows learn about liver transplant patients, end stage liver disease, general gastrointestinal problems, and HIV-related GI problems. UCSD Medical Center La Jolla (Thornton rotation) allow fellows to take care of patients requiring advanced endoscopy procedures (i.e., ERCP, EUS), GI cancer patients, bone marrow transplant patients, and geriatric patients. The San Diego VA Meducal Center cares for military veterans with a variety of general GI and hepatology problems. Kaiser Permanente San Diego provides an excellent educational opportunity for a high volume of general GI problems and endoscopy (i.e., endoscopic hemostasis, ERCP for bile duct stones, PEG placements, etc). Fellows rotate through Rady Children's Hospital for exposure to pediatric GI and through UCSD Hillcrest and VA motility labs for motility disorder experience.
Fellows during their three-year program may also enroll in UCSD Clinical Research Enhancement through Supplemental Training (CREST) Program. This is a NIH-funded program to train clinical investigators. The program has a 1-year, 2-year, or 3-year (MPH) training tracks. Classes are held one afternoon (4-6 pm per week). Clinical and research fellows are encouraged to enroll. For more information, check out the CREST Web site.
Thomas J. Savides, M.D.
Fellowship Program Director