Curriculum and Schedule and Conferences

Required Rotations

During the three years of fellowship, fellows will rotate through the core rotation of G.I. Consults at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC), Liver Consults at UCMC, Hepatology Inpatient Service at UCMC, and a combined Liver and GI rotation at the VA hospital.

The Hepatology Inpatient service at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center is a floor where patients are admitted with predominantly Liver-related diagnoses. This is run by a full team of Internal Medicine residents. The G.I. fellow acts as a consultant to the residents. The faculty member assigned to mentor this team is a Hepatology faculty member. This gives the G.I. fellow an opportunity to have a more relaxed experience, not giving day-to-day care, but working as a consultant and educator for the Internal Medicine residents. This is a valuable experience regardless of what time in your training this is done.

Faculty members rotate on service every two weeks. They evaluate the fellows based on the standard core competencies and their endoscopic abilities. These evaluations are used to monitor the progress of fellow development. We encourage face-to-face feedback between faculty and trainee.  All evaluations are reviewed bi-annually with the Program Director and the fellow.

Electives

During first-year and second-year fellows are required to take electives in Manometry and in Nutrition. Other electives which can be done later in training include 1 to 3 months of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, 1 to 3 months of Manometry, one month of Advanced Endoscopy, or 3 months of Advanced Endoscopy if the fellow is commented to a career in Advanced Endoscopy. There is an opportunity to participate in a 3 or 6-month elective in Ambulatory Outpatient Medicine at the Midtown location. New this year there is a 1 month elective in Transplant Hepatology Ambulatory Medicine. Beginning in January 2024 there will be a 1 month elective in Ambulatory Obesity Medicine. Fellows are encouraged to put together electives in their third year that will suit their interests.

Research

Fellows are required to do two months a year dedicated to research. Dr. Khurram Bari, Associate Program Director, serves as the Director of Fellowship Research. He is instrumental in helping fellows find projects and appropriate mentors.

Though currently, we do not have formal rotations at Children’s Hospital we do work closely with them on a routine basis and many of our fellows do research at Children’s Hospital.

Our conference schedule is set for every Thursday afternoon from approximately 3-6 PM. We begin our year with the Pre-summer Lecture Series, given by the Program Director, to help new fellows transition cover from being an Internal Medicine Resident to being a G.I. consultant. These lectures discuss professionalism, how to be an outstanding consultant, the role of teamwork in Endoscopy, how to obtain proper informed consent, how to disclose an adverse event, and the Ergonomics of Endoscopy including an Endoscopy simulation session. Following that, there is the Summer Lecture series which covers all of the G.I. emergencies and then the regular conference schedule for the year begins.

Our conferences include Radiology, Pathology, Medical-Surgical Conference, Medical-Pediatric Conference, Journal club, Morbidity and Mortality Conference, and Clinical and Research Conferences.