Curriculum
Strengths of our program include fellow competency in the following areas:
- Diabetes management with the latest technologies
- Insulin pumps
- Continuous Glucose Monitors
- Certified Diabetic Educators
- In-patient nurse practitioner service
- Thyroid nodule evaluation from start to finish
- Ultrasound competency
- Biopsy experience (> 100 biopsies per fellow over 2 years)
- On-site cytopathology adequacy skills
- Regular cytopathology conferences with pathologists
- Excellent thyroid surgeons
- Nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapies
- Multidisciplinary clinics for dedicated training in the following areas:
- MFM for high risk obstetrics care in patients with diabetes
- Cystic fibrosis related diabetes
- Cytopathology for review of thyroid biopsies and surgical pathology
- Transition from pediatric to adult Endocrine clinic
- Metabolic bone disease
- Teaching and presenting opportunities with faculty, residents, and students
- Diabetes lectures
- Case presentations
- Journal clubs
- Clinical and/or bench research experience and collaborations in the following areas
- Cardiology
- Vascular surgery
- Vermont Cancer Center
- Jeffords Quality Institute
First Year
The first year of fellowship is devoted to clinical training through time spent on the inpatient consultative service, in general and specialty endocrine clinics, and on rotations with other sections and departments throughout the institution. Fellows spend six months on the consult team which is responsible for consultative service or direct management of patients admitted for the diagnosis or management of endocrine and metabolic diseases.
The fellow sees all patients under the guidance of the attending physician in tandem with medical students (usually 2 or 3) and medical residents (usually 1) who are taking elective rotations in endocrinology and are supervised by the fellow. Outpatient clinics entail three half days per week (two general endocrine clinics and a specialty diabetes clinic).
Fellows follow their own patients throughout their fellowship under guidance of the faculty, and have the opportunity to work with all of the faculty in the inpatient and outpatient settings. An additional one to two half days per week are spent on rotations on reproductive endocrinology, nuclear medicine, radiology, Osteoporosis Center, and pediatric endocrinology.
In addition, the fellow is responsible for the organization of a weekly clinical conference, and participates in various lectures and seminars for the medical students and Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Psychiatry residents who rotate through the Endocrinology service.
During the course of the first year, fellows identify the area of research they wish to pursue and the faculty member they wish to work with. They work closely with the faculty member to devise the project and prepare a written outline. Fellows are closely supervised during their research years by their faculty mentor, but there also is ample opportunity for guidance and scientific interaction with all of the faculty through participation in lab meetings, divisional research conferences, and institutional seminars.
Second Year
The second year includes protected time for completion of a research project. A wide spectrum of topics are under investigation by the section using techniques that span from basic research through animal investigation to an active clinical research program within the Clinical Research Center.
Clinical activities during the second year are one half day per week general endocrinology continuity clinic, a half day per week diabetes clinic, and a half day per week of multidisciplinary clinic. There is also reduced coverage of the inpatient consultation service. Fellows may also pursue interests in specialty areas of endocrinology or take additional outpatient or inpatient electives if they wish during the second year.