Fellowship Program

The principal mission of our fellowship program is to equip trainees with the clinical and research skills that will allow them to pursue academic careers devoted to the investigation and care of endocrine-related disorders. Therefore, we offer intensive training in basic, clinical and/or translational research.

Clinical Training

Our goal is to provide each fellow with the knowledge, training and experience that will allow him/her to excel in the clinical practice of endocrinology. Towards that end, each trainee spends at least 12 months during the fellowship on the clinical endocrine services, during which time he/she is responsible for inpatient consultations and participates in the management of the patients admitted by the endocrine staff to the general medical wards. The inpatient experience is based primarily at Yale-New Haven Hospital, but also includes consultation services provided at VA-Connecticut Medical Center in West Haven, as well as the Yale Psychiatric Hospital and Connecticut Mental Health Center on the New Haven medical campus. In addition to inpatient services, each fellow will gain extensive outpatient experience in the endocrine clinics of the Yale Medical Group, the VA-Connecticut healthcare system, Yale University Health Services, and the offices of affiliated voluntary faculty throughout Southern Connecticut. Fellows will be responsible for their own longitudinal clinic (2-3 years) as well as participate in a series of subspecialty clinics under the direct supervision of the Endocrine faculty. An expanded clinical program is available for those fellows enrolled in the clinical fellowship. Patients evaluated in both the inpatient and outpatient settings provide the fellow a broad experience with the wide spectrum of endocrine and metabolic diseases. These include diabetes, lipid disorders, metabolic bone diseases, thyroid conditions, and pituitary, adrenal and gonadal syndromes. In addition to direct patient contact, clinical education is enhanced by an extensive series of didactic and interactive educational conferences. These include endocrine grand rounds, clinical case conference, thyroid conference, pituitary conference, bone case conference, diabetes journal club, and bone journal club. Each of these conferences involves the active participation of members from other departments such as Radiology, Endocrine Surgery, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Laboratory Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Neurosurgery, Pathology and Nuclear Medicine. This multi-disciplinary approach greatly enhances education and patient care.

Research Training

The centerpiece of this training consists of an individual research project designed and executed by the fellow under the guidance of a faculty mentor and a progress committee. Fellows can choose a mentor from an extensive list of training faculty drawn from both the Endocrine and other basic science and clinical faculty. Progress committees are designed to function like a Ph.D. thesis committee and consist of the mentor and 2-3 other faculty members with appropriate expertise. Although some of our fellows with extensive prior research experience arrive with a project in mind, most trainees develop a project proposal during the first year of clinical training as they get to know the faculty and their research interests. In addition to the individual mentored research project, in the summer following the first clinical year of training, each fellow is expected to enroll in short courses in statistics and biomedical research techniques offered by the Yale Investigative Medicine Program (see below). The research infrastructure at Yale Medical School, Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale University is truly outstanding. Biomedical Research at Yale is poised for an exciting time of new growth as Yale University opens its new science-oriented West Campus in nearby West Haven and Yale New Haven Hospital prepares to open the new Smilow Cancer Hospital. Below, we will highlight aspects of our institution that we believe offer special opportunities to our Endocrine trainees. Links to each individual program will allow you to explore further.

Yale is home to two programs for those trainees seeking further formal educational opportunities. Recent trainees in Endocrinology are participating in both.

The Investigative Medicine Program is a unique “Ph.D. after M.D.” program offered by the Yale School of Medicine. It is a competitive degree program designed for physicians who decide to devote themselves to an investigative career after they have completed their clinical training. It is open to residents and post-doctoral fellows from all clinical departments. Training consists of graduate course work designed to provide a broad skill set for biomedical research followed by an intensive mentored research experience, which forms the basis for the Ph.D. dissertation.

The purpose of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale is to prepare future physician leaders who will improve health and healthcare. It is an intensive program of training in clinical epidemiology, public health and health policy. Through course work, mentored clinical and community research, exposure to senior level leaders, and patient care, RWJ Scholars develop the experience and skills to lead positive change at the local and national level.