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The Endocrinology & Metabolism Fellowship Program utilizes the University of
Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and its affiliated hospitals in Galveston, Texas
to provide a large population of both local and referred patients with a
variety of Endocrine problems. UTMB serves as a referral resource from
throughout the state for private and charity patients. The Endocrinology
Fellowship program at UTMB focuses on patient care, education, teaching, and
research.
Application
General Description
of the University
General
Learning Objectives of the Fellowship Program
General
Description of Fellowship Program
Patient Care
Teaching and Education
Research
Faculty Members
Excellence
Further Information
General Description of the University:
The University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston, established in 1891, is one of the oldest and
largest of the Medical schools in southern USA. The UTMB complex consists of
integrated schools of Medicine, Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Allied Health
Sciences and Nursing. All facilities are contiguous and no satellite
hospitals are required for the fellowship program.
General
Learning Objectives of the Fellowship Program:
- Perform focused history and physical exams
and develop clinical skills, differential diagnosis and treatment plans
for clinical Endocrine disorders in the hospitalized patient in acute and
chronic settings.
- Perform focused history and physical exams
and develop clinical skills, differential diagnosis and treatment plans
for clinical Endocrine disorders in the outpatient setting.
- Understand the physiology, pathology,
clinical manifestations and management of different diseases related to
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
- Understand the principles of conducting
basic and clinical research and actively participate in specific research
projects.
- Develop teaching skills and enhance depth
of knowledge by participating in the program’s educational curriculum
through the different conferences and supervision of students and
residents rotating in the division.
General
Description of Fellowship Program:
The Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellowship program at UTMB is fully
accredited by the American Medical Association Liaison Committee on
Graduate Medical Education. The duration of the program is for 2 years,
with approval for 2 fellows per year.
The first year of the program focuses on clinical activities, mainly the
inpatient and outpatient sectors with electives, while the second year is
devoted to the development of research skills through selection of desired
projects and interaction with corresponding faculty members. Electives
include Pediatric Endocrinology, Nuclear Medicine, Reproductive
Endocrinology, Cytopathology and Radiology. Elective opportunities can be
diverse and tailored to each fellow's interest.
Fellows are encouraged to be actively involved in different areas of
research from the first year. Educational stipends are provided for
educational-related activities.
Patient
Care:
The UTMB patient care complex includes
seven continuously arranged hospitals, 85 outpatient clinics for all the
specialties of Internal Medicine, and a state-of-the-art level Emergency and
Trauma Center. With a history of multicultural diversity, UTMB's clinical
facilities offer a broad-based and representative group of patients. The
patient population is diverse in age distribution, financial status,
national origin, the presentation of acute and chronic medical problems, and
the need for primary or specialized consultative care. As the state's only
multicategorical health science referral
center, UTMB cares for patients from throughout the state. This extensive
referral base provides the Division of Endocrinology with one of the finest
mixes of patients to be
found anywhere.
The Division of Endocrinology maintains a busy inpatient consult service
that responds to an average of 30 to 50 consults per month. The consult
service consists of a faculty member, a fellow, residents and students on
the rotation.
The outpatient service is comprised of different daily clinics that cover
all areas of Endocrinology and Metabolism. The fellows’ clinic allows them
to schedule interesting patients selected either from referrals or as
continuity-of-care from the inpatient service. General Endocrine
clinics evaluate patients with general endocrine disorders such as thyroid,
Diabetes, adrenal, pituitary, lipid reproductive pituitary and metabolic
bone disorders. Three specialty clinics are attended monthly by the fellows
and include the Cardiovascular Risk and Lipid clinic, Pituitary clinic held
jointly with Neurosurgery and Thyroid Nodule & Ultrasound clinic held jointly
with ENT.
The Stark Diabetes Center (www.stark-diabetes.org), recognized by the
American Diabetes Association, provides comprehensive care for patients with
Diabetes. Diabetes clinics are conducted daily with broad exposure to
different aspects of Diabetes such as complicated disease, management of
insulin pumps and intensive insulin therapy. The Diabetes team consisting of
Certified Diabetes Nurse Educators and a Dietitian provide education and
assist in the proper management of the diabetic population.
Two specialty clinics are conducted monthly; the pituitary clinic which is
conducted jointly with the department of Neurosurgery and the Lipid and
atherosclerosis clinic.
Teaching and
Education:
Fellows attend the lecture series on General Endocrinology provided by faculty members on various topics ranging from research to clinical skills. Different weekly conferences are conducted to broaden and enhance the fellows teaching and educational skills; these include bimonthly journal clubs, where interesting and challenging cases as well as articles are presented, and bimonthly Diabetes conferences that concentrate on recent advances and community awareness. Other educational conferences include bimonthly board review sessions with ESAP questions, quarterly combined conferences that review respective endocrine topics with Pediatric Endocrinology, ENT/Otolaryngology and “Bone Club” with our Geriatric and Rheumatology Divisions.
Fellows supervise and teach students and residents attending the
Endocrinology rotation.
Fellows have the opportunity to attend other conferences during the week
such as Internal Medicine Grand Rounds as well as CPCs and conferences
sponsored by other subspecialties.
Fellows have exposure in performing fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy
and FNA under ultrasound guidance of
the thyroid. The procedure is generally performed under the supervision of
the Endocrine or Pathology faculty and techniques of the biopsy and
interpretation of the biopsy are emphasized.
Performance and interpretation of other procedures such as dynamic
Endocrine testing (e.g. insulin tolerance tests, euglycemic clamp studies,
72-hour fasting testing, growth hormone deficiency testing,..etc) are also
emphasized and are generally performed in the General Clinical Research
Center.
Educational materials include access to the uptodate online reference (www.uptodate.com),
a comprehensive source for topics on Endocrinology and Metabolism, the
Endocrine Self-Assessment Program (ESAP), and the reference guide developed and updated by the division
with copies of recent review articles on most areas of Endocrinology &
Metabolism.
Unlimited photocopying of educational materials is provided free to the
fellows.
UTMB's Moody Medical Library is another valuable resource on campus and
contains over a quarter million volumes, nearly 3,000 current journal
subscriptions, and over 5,000 audiovisual aids. Of particular interest is
the Clinical Library Service, which can provide customized research
services, including computer searches, document delivery, new book lists,
interlibrary loans, and free access to many online journals and online
medical libraries such as MD consult and Harrison online.
Research:
The Division of Endocrinology is housed in the Medical Research Building
(MRB) and occupies 8,798 sq. ft. of laboratory space on the eighth floor.
Research laboratories are based within this building with immediate access
to divisional core facilities for tissue culture, bacteriologic, and
darkroom work. The MRB also contains a centralized animal care facility
with capabilities for housing animals under microisolation
barrier conditions. Several divisional faculty members have joint
appointments in basic science departments, thus facilitating interaction
with other researchers on campus.
Researchers at UTMB have ready access to state-of-the-art core facilities
for molecular biology, protein structure and chemistry, hybridomas,
transgenics and nude mice, analytical chemistry, and biomedical imaging.
The first three Sealy Centers
for Excellence have recently been established in Molecular Sciences,
Oncology, and Molecular Cardiology. These centers were made possible by
the John Sealy Memorial Endowment Fund, a $40 million resource to
encourage research at UTMB.
Other resources on the campus include the Marine Biomedical Institute, The
Shriner's Burns Institute, The UTMB Cancer Center, and the Birth Defects
Center. The Computer Information Center and the Academic Computer Center
on campus
provide support services for personal computers as well as network linking
capabilities and access to mainframe computers on the UTMB campus as well
as the Cray X-MP supercomputer in Austin.
The NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) is a 10-bed patient
unit with specialized features for conducting multidisciplinary clinical
research. It has been continuously funded since the early 1960's and was
one of the first of approximately 75 centers in the nation currently
funded by NIH. Besides the specially trained nursing and dietary staff and
metabolic kitchen, the Center incorporates a sleep laboratory and a
metabolic control unit. Biostatistical expertise is available for
assistance in planning and analyzing investigators' studies.
In addition, the Clinical trials Unit encourages clinical research by
expanding the existing departmental clinical research activities and
enhancing research opportunities available from the pharmaceutical
industry. Available services include secretarial and nursing coordinator
assistance, Institutional Review Board liaison, patient recruitment,
biostatistical support, editorial assistance, and scientific review.
The second year fellow is assisted to set plans for the field and area of
research-clinical or basic-of interest. The fellow can set his/her own
research project or continue with ongoing projects, if desired, with the
corresponding faculty members.
The second year fellow attends Clinical Research: Tools and Techniques, an
extensive year-long course that focuses on the aspects of planning,
organizing and conducting research.
Faculty Members:
All the faculty in the Division has been actively involved in different
areas of research in the basic and clinical fields of Endocrinology,
Diabetes and Metabolism. Research laboratories and facilities are located
on the eighth floor of the Medical Research Building. The General Clinical
Research Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
provides specialized features for conducting multidisciplinary clinical
research. The Division faculty have published many papers in different
peer-reviewed journals, such as Endocrinology, Endocrine Practice, Journal
of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Journal of Clinical
Investigation, Journal of Hypertension, Journal of Virology, Journal of
Immunology, Blood, Journal of Biochemistry, Journal of Biological
Chemistry, Molecular Endocrinology, and The American Journal of
Physiology.
Research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the
American Heart
Association, NASA, the John Sealy Memorial Foundation, and several
pharmaceutical
companies.
Excellence:
The Endocrinology Fellowship Program at UTMB offers excellent
opportunities in clinical as well as research activities pertaining to
Endocrine and Metabolic disorders. UTMB was ranked 29th in hormonal
disorders, among 1878 hospitals in the USA in 2001 by US News and World
Reports. The program is flexible so that the individual needs of the
Endocrine Fellow can be met.
Further
Information:
For further information regarding the
Endocrinology Fellowship program, please contact:
Ta'Wanda Fuqua, Program Coordinator
8.138 Medical Research Building
Galveston, Texas 77555-1060
Phone: (409) 772-8705
Fax: (409) 772-8709
email: tkfuqua@utmb.edu
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