Endocrinology Fellowship

Clinical training is carried out at four teaching hospitals, providing variety of exposure to a very diverse patient population.

• IU Health University Hospital: a tertiary referral center for the state and surrounding region.
• Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital: city/county hospital that serves a predominantly inner-city population of low socioeconomic status, about 70% of which are either uninsured or on Medicaid.
• IU Health Methodist Hospital: very large tertiary referral center with varied patient population.
• Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center: providing endocrine care to veterans in the whole state of Indiana and part of Illinois.

The clinical responsibilities are split between three consult services. One fellow covers the Eskenazi Hospital and University Hospital while overseeing one or two medicine residents. A second fellow covers the VA hospital service in addition to participating in a quality improvement project. A third fellow covers the consult service at Methodist Hospital.

Training includes a half-day per week of continuity clinic at the Eskenazi Health, and a half-day per week at the VA Medical Center. In addition, the fellows participate throughout their training in dedicated outpatient clinics; thyroid clinic, bone clinic, reproductive endocrine clinic, pediatric endocrine clinic, obstetrical diabetes clinic and general endocrine clinics.

By the end of fellowship, all fellows will have gained proficiency in:

Thyroid ultrasonography: Each fellow will perform about 100 thyroid/neck ultrasounds by the end of their training, done as part of VA continuity clinic and in thyroid clinic at Eskenazi Hospital.

Thyroid fine needle aspiration: Each fellow will perform about 15 FNAs by the end of their training at the VA FNA clinic with on-site rapid cytopathology assessment.

DXA interpretation: Bone density DXA imaging read on a weekly basis during the fellows' ambulatory months.

Fellows participate in several didactic and interactive activities throughout their trainings, whether attending or presenting at various conference venues. Endocrine conferences include:

Center of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Seminar (Monday 12-1 pm): Seminars include research presentations from celebrated external speakers, faculty from Indiana University, and research trainees.

Endocrine Grand Rounds (Wednesday 12-1 pm): Invited speakers from various disciplines and institutions cover topics in clinical endocrinology, clinical research, and basic/translational research.

Endocrine Case Conference (Wednesday 7:30-8:30 am): Endocrine fellows and faculty discuss interesting cases in a highly interactive and learning-based atmosphere.

Bone and Mineral Case Conference (Thursday 12-1 pm): Endocrine fellows and faculty discuss various metabolic bone disease cases in a collaborative ambiance.

Thyroid-Parathyroid Case Conference (Third Wednesday 7-8:30 am): A multidisciplinary group of endocrinology, surgery, pathology, radiology and nuclear medicine teams tackles complex thyroid and parathyroid cases.

Core lecture series: A comprehensive curriculum of didactic educational lectures given by faculty, planned yearly in July and August to provide the new fellows an in-depth introduction to endocrine care.

Medicine Grand Rounds (Friday 12-1 pm): Fellows are also encouraged to attend the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds that covers topics in clinical medicine, quality improvement, and clinical/translational/basic research.

Several opportunities for research are available for endocrine fellows at IU School of Medicine. Trainees are expected to obtain a faculty research mentor and research project early in the first year of training. Presentations at scientific meetings and publications in peer-reviewed academic journals are strongly encouraged.