Fellowship applicants must have completed a three-year gastroenterology fellowship at the time of matriculation into the transplant hepatology program. The one year of clinical training encompasses management of general hepatology, end stage liver disease management, liver oncology in addition to extensive training in pre and post-transplant disease management. Dedicated subspecialty clinics within hepatology in addition to continuity clinics provide exposure that exceeds ACGME and UNOS requirements for training to qualify for the Hepatology CAQ boards. In addition, inpatient hepatology rotations are designed to allow for significant autonomy in decision making and leading inpatient rounds with appropriate faculty guidance to prepare trainees to be competent, confident, and independent clinicians. Exposure to a sizable transplant volume per year allows for the opportunity to follow a large number of patients throughout the course of transplant evaluation, transplant and post-transplant care.
The University of Pennsylvania participates is several NIH and non-NIH funded clinical trials and thus provides an ample opportunity for the fellow to participate in clinical trial design and implementation. The program is involved in several NIH consortia that include the Acute Liver failure Study Group (ALFSG), Drug Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN), and Adult to Adult Live donor Liver Transplantation Network (A2ALL).
The training program has several very well trained and accomplished general and transplant hepatologists. There are eight Transplant Hepatology CAQ certified Hepatologists; one of the largest in the country. In addition, the program has well qualified and trained Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants. The Hepatology program leader is K.Rajender (Raj) Reddy MD who is the Director of Hepatology and the Medical Director of Liver Transplant. Dr. Maarouf Hoteit is the Director of the Fellowship Program. Dr. Ranjeeta Bahirwani is the Associate Director of the Advanced Transplant Hepatology Fellowship. Other faculty include Drs. Kyong-Mi Chang, Rotonya McCants-Carr, Kim Forde, David Goldberg, Maarouf Hoteit, Christine Hsu, David Kaplan, Vandara Khunger, Marina Serper, and Rebecca Wells.
The Transplant Surgery program has outstanding nationally and internationally recognized clinicians as well as clinical and basic science Investigators. Dr. Abraham Shaked is the Director of the Penn Transplant Institute and Dr. Kim Olthoff is the Surgical Director of Liver Transplant Program. Others include Drs. Peter Abt, Paige Porrett, and Matt Levine. There is a unique and vital synergy in the day to day clinical care between the Surgery and Medicine teams and the fellow will have an opportunity to interact and integrate care of transplant candidates and recipients effectively.
Fellowship training will occur at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine.
Inpatient training will include 12 weeks on the hepatology service, six weeks on the transplant surgery service and up to two weeks of electives (one week of Infectious Diseases and one week of Pediatrics).
Responsibilities on the hepatology service include evaluation and management of a spectrum of acute and chronic liver diseases. The fellow will be responsible for leading daily rounds with the attending and educating medical students, residents and gastroenterology fellows.
The transplant surgery service will provide opportunities to participate in management of post-op patients and observe transplants and harvests.
In addition to outpatient hepatology continuity clinic which will occur throughout the year, the fellow will be expected to participate in the following outpatient clinics when not on inpatient service: Transplant Evaluation Clinic on Mondays, Post-transplant Clinic on Tuesdays, Viral Hepatitis Center Clinic on Thursdays and Liver Tumor clinic on Fridays. In addition the fellow will participate in outpatient endoscopy time with hepatology faculty as well as management of immunosuppression for outpatients. The clinical training in the first year is supplemented by interrelated didactic conferences:
- Hepatobiliary tumor conference
- Liver Transplant Selection Meeting
- GI/Hepatology Pathology Conference
- GI/Hepatology Clinical Journal Club
- GI/Hepatology Clinical Case Conference
- GI/Hepatology Grand Rounds
- Viral Hepatitis Grand Rounds
- Hepatology Transplant Conference