Fellowship Program Structure: Division of Gastroenterology

Fellowship Training Program

In the integrated MedStar Georgetown University Hospital program, the curriculum is structured so that all Gastroenterology fellows rotate through all three hospitals, MGUH, MWHC, and VAMC, creating a progressive clinical experience at a busy university hospital, a large urban hospital, and a busy VA hospital. The primary site and sponsoring institution for the program is MGUH.

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) is a university hospital in Washington, D.C. with 15,600 admissions, 6,601 inpatient surgeries, 8,418 surgeries, and 35,170 emergency room visits. The hospital functions as a tertiary care referral center for patients from the Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and internationally. Patients with a full breadth and depth of digestive diseases, including common and complex cases, are evaluated and treated here. The patient population is ethnically diverse with a cross section of insurance providers. Patients are referred from other hospitals in the area and surrounding states insurance providers. Patients are referred from other hospitals in the area and surrounding states because of the specific expertise of the GI faculty providing GI fellows with experience with common and complex general gastroenterology, pediatric gastroenterology, advanced therapeutic endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, and translational pancreatic research. The Center for Intestinal Care and Transplant at MGUH is the only program in the National’s capital and performs about 100 small bowel transplants per year providing fellows with experience in the management of pre and post small bowel transplant patients. MGUH Transplant Institute is one of the largest liver transplant centers in the region, with 106 transplants a year. GI fellows obtain experience with acute and chronic liver disease diagnosis and treatment for patients suffering from a variety of liver disorders as well as pre and post liver transplant care of patients.

The Washington, D.C. VA Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) serves more than 106,903 Veterans who are enrolled for VA health care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and had more than one-million (1,263,472) patient encounters The VA GI rotation provide fellows with a wide spectrum of gastrointestinal diseases from patients who are hospitalized and outpatients at the VA hospital.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) is one of the busiest teaching hospitals in the country with about 40,000 admissions, 12,000 inpatient surgeries, 12,000 outpatient surgeries, 90,000 emergency room visits, and 400,000 outpatient visits per year. IT provides fellows with a blend of common GI diseases and complex cases referred from surrounding hospitals and physicians. MWHC works with a cross section of insurance patients. The MWHC Heart program is a national leader in research, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The MWHC Center for Bariatric Surgery provides fellows with experience with nutritional disorders, the management of gastric adjustable bands after obesity surgery, and the treatment of gastric, intestinal, and nutritional disorders after obesity surgery. The Washington Cancer Institute at MWHC is the District’s largest cancer care facility with 76,000 outpatient visits and 2300 inpatient admissions providing GI fellows with exposure to interdisciplinary care of cancer patients.

The educational experience for endoscopic procedures is designed to enable the fellow to become skilled in the indications, contraindications, administration of moderate and conscious sedation, complications and limitations of all routine diagnostic and therapeutic GI and liver procedures, including, but not limited to the following: upper endoscopies; colonoscopies; flexible sigmoidoscopies; esophageal and stricture dilation procedures including pneumatic dilation; percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement; mucosal biopsies and endoscopic mucosal resection; GI motility studies, esophageal impedance and wireless pH monitoring; banding, cautery, injection and sclerotherapy; and capsule endoscopy. Fellows also receive exposure to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopanctreagraphy radiofrequency ablation, chromoendoscopy, and fecal transplants.