| The UCSD Endocrinology Fellowship provides solid clinical training. Patient care at UCSD spans three hospitals each with its own in-patient and out-patient clinic components. The three hospitals provide a diversity of experiences, including quite disparate patient populations. The core clinical portion of the fellowship extends over a two-year period. Each endocrine fellow is assigned to the Inpatient Endocrine Consult Service for a total of four non-consecutive months. The Consult Service generally consists of the fellow, a medical resident, a fourth-year medical student, and the consult attending physician. The Consult Service covers the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center in Hillcrest, Thornton Hospital in La Jolla, and the VA Medical Center in La Jolla. The Endocrine Consult Service sees a very diverse array of patients and endocrine-related problems. Also, fellows are immediately involved in the care of patients who are brought in for clinical research projects (including glucose clamp experiments and fat biopsies). The majority of clinical instruction occurs in the outpatient setting, reflecting the major venue of health-care delivery within the Endocrine subspecialty. Fellows develop outpatient practices at all three UCSD-affiliated hospitals, which include the multidisciplinary diabetes clinic at the VA Medical Center and the general endocrine clinics at the VA and UCSD. A wide variety of endocrine problems are seen in these clinics, covering the spectrum of diabetes, adrenal, pituitary, thyroid, and reproductive endocrinology. Fellows alternate among these locations on a weekly basis for two years. Fellows also rotate through the subspecialty clinics in obesity, pediatric endocrinology, reproductive endocrinology, and the thyroid clinic. Second year fellows have the option of taking an elective in the lipid research clinic, thyroid eye clinic, high-risk OB clinic, or a clinic at Kaiser Permanente. The program of clinical instruction includes participation in endocrine grand rounds (weekly), post-clinic conferences at the VA Medical Center (twice-weekly), and a fellows’ conference dedicated to fundamentals of clinical endocrinology (weekly). There is also a Journal Club held monthly. UCSD Clinical Environment | |
