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Past fellows share how the Gastrointestinal Pathology Fellowship program prepared them for the next step in their career.

Testimonials for Gastrointestinal Pathology Fellowship 

Yukihiro Nakanishi, MD, PhD

After spending a fantastic year as a GI pathology fellow at Indiana University in 2014, I got a job at Tulane University in New Orleans. I moved to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa in 2019 and currently work at Moffitt as a GI pathologist. The GI/liver pathology fellowship training at Indiana University significantly improved my diagnostic skills to confidently handle cases covering the full range of GI diseases including a substantial amount of transplant cases and challenging cases. After one-year fellowship training, I became fully prepared to work as an independent GI pathologist in both academic and private practice settings.

During my fellowship training, I really enjoyed daily sign-out with world-renowned pathologists (Drs. Saxena, Cummings, and Linn) in addition to a daily consensus conference and multidisciplinary liver transplantation conference. The attendings are always amiable and supportive and helped me to get job interviews. I was very interested in an academic practice setting. Therefore, I was very happy with my most productive one-year in my life. My publications during my fellowship training speak for itself: 2 book chapters (Essentials of Anatomic Pathology. Springer, 2016), 1 review article (Arch Path Lab Med 2015 139(7):858-866.), and 2 original articles (Am J Surg Pathol 2015 39 (7): 968-976 (first author) and Mod Pathol 2016 29(5):489-99 (third author)).

I highly recommend this GI/liver pathology fellowship at Indiana University. I’m convinced this fellowship program gives you ample training to help you to achieve your goals.

Natalia Rush, MD

After completing my GI and Liver Pathology Fellowship at IU School of Medicine, I got a job in a private practice in southwest Michigan. It is my third year with the practice, and I sign out all medical liver, some GI and general surgical cases. The fellowship prepared me well to deal with challenging cases. The most appealing points of GI/liver path fellowship at IU to me were superb attendings Drs. Saxena, Cummings and Lin to learn from; great volume of medical liver biopsies including numerous allograft biopsies and GI specimens including intestinal allografts and numerous consults; multidisciplinary liver transplantation conferences with expert hepatologists; and outstanding resources for conducting clinicopathologic research projects with amazing media center and histology lab resources.

My transition into independent practice was easy owing to my training in high-volume diverse case environment under such a great mentorship. I highly recommend GI/liver path fellowship at IU because it would prepare anyone well to be an independent expert no matter what job setting you choose for your career.

Nathan Shelman, MD

I began my pathology training at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Pathology at the Boston Children's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. During and upon completion of my final fellowship, training in GI/Hepatopathology at Indiana University with Drs. Saxena, Cummings, and Lin in 2020, I accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky. Indianapolis is a great mid-sized Midwest city with much to offer in terms of entertainment, without the expense of some larger metropolitan areas that could stretch the wallet of medical trainees. The GI/Hepatopathology fellowship program at Indiana University offers exposure to a broad spectrum of luminal GI pathology and tumor pathology, and provides the potential for particular mastery of hepatopathology.

During my fellowship, there was ample time to preview/work up cases, ample scope time with the wonderful faculty on the GI service, and plenty of opportunities to teach/work with particularly bright residents. Having grown up in Kentucky, my ultimate goal following training was to end up in an academic setting back in my home state. I have no doubt that my training in GI/Hepatopathology at Indiana University was instrumental in my being able to proactively seek out and obtain the position which I had hoped to land, even prior to it being advertised.