Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship

Endocrinology Fellowship | Curriculum

Fellows have, on average, eight half-day clinics per calendar month. Two of these eight clinics are fellow continuity clinics where fellows follow their own patients throughout their three-year fellowship program. The six other clinics are endocrine / diabetes clinics staffed by pediatric endocrinology faculty and may include subspecialty clinics in, for example, special diabetes populations, Turner Syndrome, bone and calcium disorders, differences of sex development and growth disorders. Each fellow will choose a clinical mentor who will help guide them in developing clinical goals and efficiency.

Fellows participate, throughout their fellowship, in two inpatient pediatric endocrinology hospital consultation teams. We have a primary team (Team A) that covers endocrine consultations and diabetes ketoacidosis admissions. We have a diabetes consult service (Team B) that covers diabetes day hospital admissions and all other patients with diabetes (ie, steroid-induced diabetes, post total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation) followed by other primary services. First year fellows do a total of 8-10 service weeks. Second and third fellows do a total of 6 weeks. The first time our first year fellows are on call, they are paired with a third year fellow for support and real-time orientation. Fellows are on one week at a time, and every effort is made to space these out around PTO and other requests. Fellows on service sign out to a different fellow each night who take call so the service fellow can sign notes and sleep. The overnight on call fellow is not expected to come in the next morning.

The Endocrinology Division at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital can support many types of research interests which will meet criteria for graduation. We have expertise in all types of research within the division: clinical, translational, education-based, quality improvement, and global health. The division further supports participation in masters programs for selected fellows. Fellowship research is supervised by either the division’s Scientific Oversight Committee or a fellow can help design their own committee based on career interests with the guidance of the fellowship and research directors.

Fellows participate in educational activities involving the division as well as related to the pediatric residency program at Cincinnati Children’s. Fellows are encouraged to do “on the fly” teaching on rounds with medical students and residents and also give noon conference for the residents. In addition, fellows give case presentations, journal club presentations as well as research presentations during the didactic sessions organized within the division. We have a Board Review Series that works through all endocrine board content on a 3-year cycle so every fellow has full exposure to topics prior to sitting for the pediatric endocrine boards. These topics are fellow led and presented, with faculty present for questions and guidance.

The Endocrinology Division supports a variety of educational activities. These include, but are not limited to weekly inpatient clinical conference, monthly journal club, weekly combined adult and pediatric endocrinology clinical and research conferences, monthly conference on disorders of sexual differentiation, as well as invited lectures organized by the division, involving speakers from outside our division. We also have quarterly educational conferences, radiology rounds, and safety event reviews. The division supports four visiting professorships on an annual basis, which allow direct exposure and discussion between the pediatric endocrinology fellows and the visiting professor. Fellows attend, at a minimum, one scientific meeting per year, and are encouraged to present their research at national meetings.