Curriculum

Clinical training

During the fellow's clinical training, he/she evaluates patients with a wide range of endocrine disorders: thyroid diseases (including fine needle aspiration of thyroid nodules and radioactive iodine therapy for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer), metabolic bone disorders (osteoporosis, osteomalacia, Paget's disease), hyper- and hypocalcemia, hyperandrogenism in women, sexual dysfunction and infertility, diabetes mellitus, male hypogonadism, endocrine causes of hypertension (Cushing's syndrome, hyperaldosteronism, pheochromoctyoma), and pituitary dysfunction.

First year fellows will become well versed in the management of medically complex hospitalized patients with a broad range of endocrine disorders through rotations on 3 inpatient consult services, including Endocrinology and Diabetes services at HUP and a combined Endocrine/Diabetes Consult services at the VAMC.

A major portion of the clinical effort in the fellowship program is devoted to evaluation and treatment of patients in an ambulatory care setting. Ambulatory training is provided to the Fellows in EDM through active participation throughout their period of training in subspecialty endocrine clinics at each of the three hospitals in the program, in which both new and continuity patients are seen. These ambulatory care venues provide exposure to an economically and ethnically diverse spectrum of individuals with diseases and syndromes across the entire spectrum of endocrine and metabolic problems.

First year ambulatory experiences

Metabolic Bone Clinic Penn Pituitary Center Penn Thyroid Center
Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center Obesity Thyroid Biopsy Clinic
VAMC General Endocrinology Clinic
 

All first year fellows are assigned to three to four weekly clinics depending upon their rotation.

Second year ambulatory experiences

Metabolic Bone Clinic Penn Pituitary Center Penn Thyroid Center
Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center Penn General Endocrinology Metabolic Medicine
VAMC General Endocrinology Clinic Gender Affirming Care Thyroid FNA Clinic

Research pathway

Fellows maintain a weekly endocrine continuity clinic of their choice, which may be composed of two six-month consecutive blocks in two different clinic settings.

Clinical educator pathway

Fellows have a total of four weekly clinics, one of which is focused on the care of diabetic patients, and the others are selected by the fellow. One weekly session will be at the VAMC.  All weekly clinics must be at least of six month duration to be considered continuity clinics.

Additional ambulatory rotation experiences

Reproductive Endocrinology Lipid Clinic Pediatric Endocrinology
Renal Hypertension    

Third and fourth year fellows (required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) for fellows in the ABIM Research pathway who complete only two years of an internal medicine residency prior to commencement of fellowship) maintain a weekly continuity clinic, which may be composed of two six-month consecutive blocks in two different clinic settings.

Didactic training

The Division faculty conduct consult rounds that focus on disease etiology and management which regularly include didactic presentations which cover the spectrum of endocrine pathophysiology. This program ensures that fellows receive formal instruction in a full curriculum as designated.  Core conferences include:

Endocrine grand rounds

The conference, held on Wednesdays at noon is jointly attended by faculty and fellows of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at HUP and the Endocrinology Division at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The series provides both adult and pediatric endocrine fellows with the opportunity to gain skills in delivering evidence based academic presentations on challenging and instructive cases under the mentorship of expert faculty. Outstanding national speakers including Penn Faculty are invited to present on a clinical or translational research endocrine topic. Fellows have the opportunity to meet with speakers to review cases of interest.

Rodebaugh diabetes conference series

This weekly multidisciplinary Diabetes Conference provides a forum for case presentation and discussion of interesting, challenging, and instructive cases alternating with more formal didactic sessions presenting basic concepts in clinical and molecular diabetology and metabolism.

Combined IDOM / DRC seminar series

Here, Penn faculty and outstanding invited faculty from throughout the country present innovative basic scientific work involving molecular diabetology and endocrinology.  View Seminar Series. Additional multidisciplinary conferences and journal clubs also occur throughout the year.

Research training

The research experience in our training program is based on a mentor: fellow relationship that is meaningful, interactive at frequent intervals, and leads to formulation of the research problem, determination of appropriate experimental design, use of appropriate research methodology, analysis of data, interpretation of results and, eventually, publication in peer-reviewed journals. All fellows will engage in meaningful scholarly activities regardless of fellowship path and have opportunities to publish their work in peer-reviewed journals and present at national endocrine meetings.

In addition to basic, translational, and clinical research, fellows gain training in critical appraisal of endocrine literature through participation in Clinical Conferences, Journal Club, and Research Seminars. They are encouraged to present and publish informative cases that they encounter during their training. Finally, faculty members are encouraged to ask fellows to participate in writing invited Chapters or Reviews, with appropriate authorship designation.

Divisional research training grants allow fellows on the research pathway to pursue this on a full time basis and opportunities are available for fellows both within and outside of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism. Fellows who are pursuing investigative careers may also continue their research efforts as a research associate with additional years of training after completion of the required two years by the RRC and with faculty support, they have been successful at obtaining mentored funding.

Research training may be supplemented by formal graduate basic science courses at the University. The University of Pennsylvania offers fellows opportunities for obtaining additional post-graduate education in clinical research.

Endocrinology diabetes & metabolism research faculty