The Brigham and Women's Hospital Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Fellowship is led by Director Matthew J. Hamilton, MD. Throughout the one-year program, fellows acquire advanced skills to excel in clinical care. The program is designed to prepare the fellow to be a successful physician-investigator in clinical IBD within an academic medical center gastroenterology division. Brigham and Women’s Hospital has had a long-standing history of excellence in IBD and is nationally recognized for research, clinical care, and clinical education with a diverse faculty who will train and mentor the fellow. The IBD fellowship is a cornerstone of the program. The goals of the fellowship are to train gastroenterologists to become outstanding physicians in the care of patients with IBD, engage in meaningful clinical research, become effective teachers and mentors for younger colleagues, pursue an academic career, and achieve a leadership position nationally in the field of IBD.
Candidates for the Fellowship must have graduated from an ACGME-accredited program in Internal Medicine and an ACGME-accredited program in Gastroenterology within five years of the application process. There is one position available each year on a competitive basis.
The curriculum includes outpatient and inpatient care, research training, as well as clinical and research conferences. State of the art clinical training is provided by senior clinicians and modules have been developed for advanced IBD skills in gastrointestinal pathology, surgery, radiology, and a unique transition of care clinic for adolescents with IBD.
The fellow will participate weekly in two half-day IBD clinics assigned 1:1 with a scheduled IBD faculty member. The fellow will be assigned to different faculty on rotating 3-month basis to maximize exposure to diverse subgroups of disease and senior faculty clinical management behaviors. The fellow sees 4-6 new or existing patients per session who have been referred from within the Institution or from other gastroenterologists or IBD providers in the region or nationally.
The fellow will participate in a weekly one half-day endoscopy session, performing 6-8 procedures per session under the 1:1 supervision of a faculty endoscopist who will rotate every 4 months. The fellows will also participate, when possible, in selected procedures of patients who require more complex intervention including stricture dilation and cancer surveillance with chromoendoscopy. The fellows will maintain a case log of all procedures performed.
The fellow will attend one colorectal half-day surgical clinic a week. Fellows will learn to evaluate the pre- and post-operative management of IBD patients with surgical staff of the BWH Center for Crohn's and Colitis. In addition, they will observe a minimum of two operations on patients who they have evaluated in their clinic: one would be a colectomy with J-pouch creation and the other would be an ileo-colic resection.
Specialized radiology training in IBD will be facilitated through the presentation of cases at the IBD case conference. Fellows review the radiology for the cases to be presented and didactic teaching in abdominal and pelvic radiology is included in each session.
Pathology training in IBD will be facilitated in a similar way as radiology. The IBD fellow will have the opportunity to review cases presented in the IBD case conference in addition to didactic material and review of teaching cases including inflammatory changes characteristic of IBD and types of dysplasia.
Faculty: Deepa Patil, MD, Mark Redston, MD
The fellow will evaluate and manage late adolescent and young adult patients with IBD supervised by a Boston Children’s Hospital faculty member. The emphasis will be on adolescent patients’ particular medical problems, psychosocial issues, and approach to care of their IBD as they and their families transition to an adult care setting.
In a 3-month block, the IBD fellow will have the opportunity to work with IBD-focused nutritionists for two months as well as the pelvic floor physical therapy group for one month. During this 3-month block, the fellow will also participate in our mind body program that includes our IBD social worker, nutritionist, a nurse practitioner, psychiatrist, and mind-body program director.
IBD inpatient training will focus on complex cases. Brigham and Women's Hospital Attendings on the general GI consult service will request that the IBD fellow evaluate a hospitalized IBD patient with complex IBD related issues, at the time of the consult early in the hospitalization. The case is then discussed with the attending and general GI fellows with regards to the assessment and treatment care plan. The IBD fellow peripherally follows the patient course during the inpatient stay and provides ongoing teaching to the general GI fellows about key aspects of the consult.
There are many opportunities for the advanced fellow to gain additional research skills. The research component is designed to provide close oversight and guidance as well as an opportunity for training in specialized skills needed for clinical research. Our program offers a novel opportunity for the IBD fellow to receive advanced training in clinical and epidemiologic research in an intense summer program at the Harvard School of Public Health. There is ample time and resources in the program so that the IBD fellow can develop their clinical research project which will serve as the foundation for their academic career. As part of the training, our program also offers distinct skills and expertise for the development of a career as an IBD educator.
The fellow, if not having already been awarded an MPH degree, has the opportunity to attend the Harvard School of Public Health Program in Clinical Effectiveness. This is a joint program of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. It is designed for the academic clinician seeking to further develop the quantitative and analytic skills needed for clinical research. This program is an intensive seven-week, 15-credit summer curriculum, which includes:
This coursework serves as an excellent foundation for the fellow to see through the project to its maximum potential. Ideally the IBD fellow has picked a project prior to the start of the coursework so that project study design may be incorporated into their studies. The opportunity to continue to an MPH is possible as well.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For further information about the application proceed or to apply, please contact Dr. Hamilton (mjhamilton@bwh.harvard.edu) and include an up-to-date CV.
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