Gastroenterology Fellowship Training Program

The UPMC Gastroenterology Fellowship Program provides an established educational curriculum with excellence in clinical service and training complemented by outstanding research opportunities.

Our GI Fellowship Program has received the maximum accreditation cycle from the ACGME, honored with commendations and no citations. Due to the large size of the fellowship and outstanding clinical and research faculty (40+), we are able to tailor training to ensure that each fellow achieves his or her individual career goals. In keeping with ACGME requirements, all University of Pittsburgh fellows must participate in 18 months of clinical training, but the additional 18 months of training may be constructed to meet fellows’ individualized interests. This flexibility offers the trainees several benefits:

• Fellows are encouraged to define their long-term career goals early in the training period. Fellows with an interest in academic medicine can take advantage of the opportunities to define concentrations as:
  • Clinical Investigator – Career in clinical and population-based research.
  • Physician Scientist – Career in basic and translational research.
  • Clinical Educator – Career in Graduate Medical Education.
• An individualized training experience that can provide up to 18 months of protected research time, specialized clinical training in a focused discipline, educational training, or other opportunities based on specific interests. These training areas are in-line with our Centers of Excellence in the Division:
  • Pancreas and Biliary Center
  • Inflammatory and Bowel Disease Center
  • Center for Liver Disease
  • Neurogastroenterology and Motility Center
  • Intestinal Health and Nutritional Support
  • Gastrointestinal Cancer Prevention and Treatment Center
  • Center for Women’s Digestive Health
• Opportunity to advance interested fellows into a third-tier (fourth year) specialized training program in the following areas:
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Medical Pancreatology
  • Therapeutic Endoscopy
  • Transplant Hepatology

Most fellows spend their first year in clinical training. Select fellows (usually T32 track fellows) may have protected research time during or following their first year. Within the first six months of training, the program director and associate program director meet with Year I fellows to plan the second and third training years. During this first year, structured meetings are arranged among Year I fellows and the research and clinical faculty. Fellows begin to define career goals and plan for the second training year, all with guidance and supervision from fellowship leadership. By the end of the first year, a Year II schedule is established to provide protected time for research, specialized clinical training, education, or additional course work. During the second year of fellowship, regular meetings occur with the fellow, his or her research mentor, and the program director to assess progress and plan for the final year of GI fellowship training.

EMERGE Program

The EMERGE (Enhancing MEntoring to improve Research in GastroEnterology) program was started in the fall of 2018 to foster the academic, career and professional development of fellows and junior faculty in the division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The program, overseen by division faculty, provides mentoring, resources for conducting scholarly activities (with support from the Center for Research on Health Care Data Center [CHRC]) and opportunities for career and professional development within and outside the University of Pittsburgh.  These goals are met via a combination of one-on-one meetings with the fellows, as well as a unique didactic series by thought leaders in field. EMERGE and CHRC faculty assist the fellow and their faculty mentor in designing the scholarly projects, and a Masters level Statistician under the supervision of the CHRC faculty helps in statistical analyses and preparation of manuscripts and abstract presentations that originate from the scholarly activity of the fellows and junior faculty members.

All current fellows are involved in clinical or basic research projects with the faculty. Before fellowship completion, all fellows must publish in a peer-reviewed journal and/or have a poster or oral abstract accepted at a national annual GI or hepatology meeting. Options for Certificate and Masters Level course in clinical research are available for interested fellows (https://www.icre.pitt.edu/).

We invite you to explore our website to learn more about the training and research opportunities available within our division. Thank you for your interest.