Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellowship
The Cedars-Sinai Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center offers an Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Fellowship training program for qualified candidates. This training experience exposes fellows to rigorous outpatient and inpatient clinical training, as well as the opportunity to engage in basic, translational, and clinical research projects.
Dozens of trainees have completed the program and established themselves as clinical and academic experts in IBD. Our goal is to expose trainees to excellent clinical and research training in IBD, and to facilitate the growth of future clinical and academic leaders in IBD.
The IBD fellowship is a one year program which allows fellows to directly interact with faculty mentors in both clinical and research capacities. In addition to their strong clinical background, our faculty includes experts in mucosal immunology, animal models of IBD, translational and genetics research, clinical/outcomes and health services research, and clinical trials.
The interested applicant must have completed a general gastroenterology training program; applicants who attended medical school outside the United States must have ECFMG certification and have passed all USMILE examinations to apply. All applicants are expected to apply for a California medical license.
The application period is from December through March, approximately 1½ years prior to the starting date. For example, applicants interested in starting 2023, should email Program Administrator Polly Chang at [email protected] between December 2021 and March 2022.
Clinical Activities
Clinical activities involve both outpatient and inpatient experiences. The Cedars-Sinai IBD faculty is committed to helping trainees develop clinical comfort and expertise in IBD, and to nurturing independence and autonomy in the setting of a supervised training program.
The Cedars-Sinai IBD Center provides outpatient ambulatory services for hundreds of patients each month. Fellows will attend three to five half-day clinics per week, and will be expected to maintain follow-up of patients they encounter. In addition, fellows will have the opportunity to perform endoscopy one half-day per week should they so choose.
Fellows will also rotate on the IBD inpatient service along with an IBD faculty member. During these two week rotations, the IBD fellow will learn about the management of severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, become familiar with the art of cyclosporine administration, pre-operative decision-making and post-operative management of patients with IBD. The IBD fellow will be expected to take patient calls during these rotations with appropriate faculty back-up.
Research
The research experience is a critical component to the Advanced Fellowship in Inflammatory Bowel Disease training program. Once an applicant has been accepted to the program, we strongly encourage early communication through the program director to identify an area of research interest that can be discussed prior to starting the program.
Each fellow will be assigned a primary research mentor, who will oversee the fellow's research project and progress. It is expected that fellows will take ownership of at least one high-quality project under appropriate mentorship in clinical, translational, or basic research. Fellows are strongly encouraged to submit their research to a national or international meeting, and submit a manuscript for publication to a high-quality journal.
In addition, fellows will be expected to write and publish a review on the topic of research interest, and to present their research topic early in the year at Gastroenterology Grand Rounds. In addition to regular meetings with the primary pesearch mentor, fellows will present to the IBD faculty at monthly IBD research-in-progress meetings.
Conferences
The GI division offers several educational conferences on a weekly or monthly basis. It is expected that the IBD fellow will attend the weekly IBD Case Conference, weekly GI Grand Rounds, weekly Journal Club and a monthly Small Bowel Case Conference.
There are additional conferences that the IBD fellow is encouraged to attend, including weekly IBD Genetics, biweekly Capsule Endoscopy rounds, and weekly GI pathology conferences. In addition, the IBD fellow is expected to facilitate a monthly IBD pathology conference. The IBD fellow will be expected to present at GI Grand Rounds and Journal Club.
Have Questions or Need Help?
If you have questions or would like to learn more about the Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai, please call or send us a message.