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Advanced Fellowship in IBD at the University of Maryland, Baltimore

The University of Maryland, Baltimore offers an advanced fellowship in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The objectives of the advanced fellowship are three-fold:

  1. Provide specialized training in IBD over a one-year period
  2. Provide exposure to a trainee on the structure of an IBD program including but not limited to appropriate staffing, research program development, marketing, and finances.
  3. Provide structured research projects in IBD

Qualified graduates of gastroenterology fellowship training are eligible to apply for the one year fellowship. The fellow will be allotted 12 months for specialized training in IBD. During that time, the fellow will be expected to develop clinical expertise in the care of patients with IBD, develop a clinical research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor, and to attend educational conferences within and outside the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

To obtain clinical expertise, the fellow will attend outpatient clinics, endoscopy sessions, and evaluate patients on the inpatient IBD service. Specifically, he or she will be assigned to three ½ days per week of continuity clinic at the UMB. The continuity clinic at UMB will be under the supervision of Dr. Patil and IBD Program Faculty and will be comprised of tertiary referral IBD patients. The fellow will also participate in two ½ day endoscopy sessions at UMB. The fellow will also gain expertise in specialized techniques such as use of chromoendoscopy and dilation therapy of anastomotic strictures. The fellow will also participate in care of patients on the inpatient IBD service at UMB (2-3 months). The fellow will regularly review pathology and imaging results with IBD program faculty and peers in the Department of Pathology and Radiology respectively. The fellow will periodically observe surgical procedures in patients from the UMB IBD program in which surgery is necessary.

The IBD fellow will also develop presentation skills to facilitate a transition to faculty. During the course of the year, the fellow will present twice at the GI clinical care conference, once at Journal Club, once at research conference, and once at GI Grand Rounds. Also, to provide further education outside of UMB, the fellow will attend DDW, ACG, Advances in IBD as well as selected conferences as needed.

To obtain education on program strategic planning, the fellow will meet once or twice per month with Dr. Seema Patil to evaluate the fellow's progress. During these meetings, Dr. Patil will discuss resource needs, marketing strategies and business planning. It is expected that the fellow will use this information to help develop a de novo IBD program outside of UMB.

Dr. Seema Patil and IBD Program faculty will help the fellow identify one or two clinical research projects for the one year fellowship. The topic will be determined at the beginning of training but could focus on a number of areas of expertise within the UMB IBD program including but not limited to telemedicine, disparities, chromoendoscopy, women's health, optimal treatment of perianal disease, or outcomes research. It is expected that the fellow would submit two research projects for presentation at annual meetings; these abstracts should result in submission of a full manuscript for publication. Alternatively, the fellow could chose to work on other activities such as development of a book chapter highlighting a specific element of IBD patient care or submission of several case reports or case series.

Selection Criteria

Interested applicants must be graduates of an accredited gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at the time the advanced fellowship will start. Applicants will be interviewed by IBD program faculty. IBD program faculty will conduct a selection meeting to discuss the merits of each candidate. A single candidate will be selected each year.

We invite all interested fellows to send a brief cover letter expressing their interest in the position and an up to date curriculum vitae to the following address:

Seema Patil, MD
685 W. Baltimore Street, Suite 8-00
Baltimore, MD 21201
Fax 410-706-4330
spatil@som.umaryland.edu