Curriculum :

First Year

The first year of the fellowship is primarily focused on clinical training.  During this year, the fellow splits his/her time between the inpatient consult service and the outpatient rotation.  Under the supervision of a faculty attending physician, the inpatient fellow assumes responsibility for all consultations in addition to teaching medical residents and students.  Consultation rounds take place daily with a team consisting of a faculty preceptor, the fellow, one or two medical residents, and one or two senior medical students.  During the inpatient rotation, the outpatient activity is restricted to the continuity clinic to which the fellows remain assigned throughout their training.  This arrangement provides critical longitudinal experience in endocrine diseases, which are frequently chronic in nature. 

During the months of outpatient rotation, the fellows participate in daily half-day, general endocrinology clinics where they see a wide range of endocrine patients under the mentorship of a faculty member.  In addition, during this time, they also participate in outpatient subspecialty clinics in pediatric endocrinology, reproductive endocrinology, lipid disorders, genetics, and high-risk pregnancy. 

During both the inpatient and outpatient rotations, the fellows participate in regularly scheduled educational activities which include weekly Clinical Endocrinology Conference, General Endocrine and Diabetes Journal Clubs, Core Endocrine Laboratory conference, Medical Grand Rounds, a monthly Diabetes Research Conference,  a bi-weekly Endocrine Research Conference, and a monthly basic. 

In addition to the above clinical and educational activities, the first-year fellow is expected to develop and initiate a research project with the assistance of an assigned faculty mentor. 

Second and Optional Third Years

The second year of training is divided between six months of clinical activity (alternating inpatient consults with outpatient clinics) and six months of either clinical or laboratory-based research.  Participation in the continuity outpatient clinic remains throughout the second year.  The option for a third year of fellowship is available for those fellows interested in academic research careers who need to prepare themselves as independent physician scientists.  As part of their training for becoming physician scientists, these fellows will be expected to apply to the NIH or an appropriate extramural funding agency/organization for a research fellowship. 

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