Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellowship in Baltimore

Dear Applicant,

We are excited that you are interested in our Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism fellowship program at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital (MUMH), which is a community hospital with 238 general medical and surgical beds located in Baltimore, Maryland. Our Diabetes and Endocrine Center is one of the busiest in Baltimore city. We have 6 faculty members dedicated to patient care, teaching, and clinical research. Our focus is on training endocrine fellows who plan to practice clinical endocrinology. Our fellows rotate on the endocrine consult service in our hospital and are exposed to common endocrine conditions such as diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar coma, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypercalcemia, hypoglycemia, and adrenal insufficiency. Our fellows also rotate to other local academic referral centers in the area, including Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Maryland Medical Center, and Washington Hospital Center, thus exposing them to some of the rare endocrine conditions that might not be seen as frequently in a community hospital. Our fellows have a weekly continuity clinic every Monday morning where they see and treat a broad variety of endocrine conditions. In addition, our fellows have a dedicated thyroid continuity clinic where they gain experience performing thyroid ultrasounds and they participate in thyroid nodule fine needle aspiration biopsy clinic once per month with direct one-on-one supervision. Three of our faculty members are certified to perform radioactive iodine treatment, thus our fellows obtain experience in interpreting thyroid uptake and scans and are able to participate in radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Four of our faculty members are certified to read DEXA scans and read all of the DEXA scans. Our fellows gain experience reading DEXA scans. Our Diabetes Center also has a nurse practitioner, certified diabetes educator and nutritionist. Our fellows learn interpretation of continuous glucose monitoring and have patients in their clinics who are on insulin pumps and sensors.

Fellows who have graduated from our program have gone on to private clinical practice or clinical practice in the community hospital setting. Our graduates are currently practicing in Washington, DC, Fairfax, MD, Baltimore, MD, Southern MD, Texas, Maine and the Bahamas. One of our graduates works for the FDA and one of our graduates does clinical research in California. Most of our graduates have presented abstracts of their clinical research projects at one of the national endocrine meetings, such as the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) or the Endocrine Society. Multiple graduates have one awards at the National Endocrine Society for their research. They also gain experience presenting at our local Maryland Endocrine and Metabolism Society and annual Diabetes Update. Our fellows also have an opportunity to attend fellow-specific national meetings, such as Endocrine University sponsored by AACE. We hope that you will look at all of the information about our program on our website. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Pamela R. Schroeder, MD, PhD, FACE

Award-winning leaders

The award-winning, experienced, and knowledgeable specialists at the Diabetes and Endocrine Center at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital are among the leaders in their field.

They provide fellows with a comprehensive approach to studying how to diagnose and treat people with diabetes, obesity, and metabolic and other endocrine disorders. Our program has the resources needed to train fellows in areas that can be affected by diabetes, such as eyes, feet, and the cardiovascular system, as well as in other endocrine conditions, such as thyroid disease and osteoporosis.

Three of our faculty members are certified to perform radioactive iodine treatment, so our fellows obtain experience in interpreting thyroid uptake and scans and are able to participate in radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Fellows practice in office ultrasounds and thyroid nodule biopsies.

Three of our faculty members are certified to read DEXA scans, while our fellows also gain experience reading them.

Our center also has a nurse practitioner, a certified diabetes educator, and a nutritionist. Our fellows learn interpretation of continuous glucose monitoring and have patients in their clinics who are on insulin pumps and sensors.

The Department of Medicine at MedStar Union Memorial offers a two-year ACGME*-accredited clinical training program leading to certification in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. The goal of the program is to produce well-rounded clinical endocrinologists.

Didactic conferences include:

• Endocrine journal club (once per week)
• Core curriculum conference (once or twice per week)
• Case conference (once per week)
• Ask the Expert Conference (once per month)
• Endocrine Tumor Board conference (once per month)
• Ask the expert conference (once per month)
• Endocrine tumor board conference (once per month)
• Research or basic science conference (once per month)
• Radiology conference (twice per year)
• Pathology conference (twice per year)

The fellows are expected to participate in all conferences and present at many conferences (e.g., journal club and case conference).

*Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Our fellows rotate on the endocrine consult service in our hospital and are exposed to common endocrine conditions such as diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar coma, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypercalcemia, hypoglycemia, and adrenal insufficiency.

Our fellows have a continuity clinic every Monday morning where they see and treat a broad variety of endocrine conditions.

In addition, our fellows have a dedicated thyroid continuity clinic where they gain experience performing thyroid ultrasounds.  At lease once per month, fellows will participate in our weekly ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration clinic.

The fellows’ schedule follows the Department of Medicine blocks for better continuity with the attending schedule. Each year comprises 13 blocks divided into two 2-week sections (e.g., block 1A and 1B).

The fellows have a weekly, half-day general endocrine continuity clinic as well as a thyroid continuity clinic when doing inpatient consultations.

To enrich their clinical experience, fellows are required to do endocrine rotations at local major referral centers. These rotations expose our fellows to the more rare endocrine conditions that might not be seen as frequently in a community hospital.

The following rotations are required: