I thank you for your interest in applying to our program. I, myself, am a graduate of the Baylor Endocrine Fellowship Program. Since I began my fellowship in 2012, I have had the opportunity to see this program as a trainee, program faculty, associate program director, and now as program director, and I couldn’t be more proud of our section’s dedication to excellence in teaching and research. We pride ourselves on the breadth of our clinical training and our dedication to continual improvement, adapting and growing in response to changes in our clinical practice environment and to feedback from our trainees and educators.
Even a cursory glance at our program shows the broad scope of the training we offer. The first year of fellowship training is evenly divided across five very different clinical sites, with inpatient and outpatient clinical training.
The Harris Health System/Ben Taub Hospital is a busy county hospital, a level 1 trauma center, and a safety net institution for many Houstonians. There is no scarcity of endocrine emergencies handled by the inpatient service. The outpatient clinics see a broad scope of general endocrinology, as well as specialty clinics devoted to endocrine issues in pregnancy; diabetic ketoacidosis, which has published groundbreaking work; and thyroid FNA, to name a few. The Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center/Baylor Clinic rotation is enriched in the management of diabetes in the context of the cardiovascular diseases and liver and renal transplantation that the hospital is known for. The outpatient BCM Endocrine Faculty Group practice has rapidly grown in recent years, particularly with a growing endocrine neoplasia practice. MD Anderson Cancer Center is an internationally known institution and research center with endocrinologists specializing in all aspects of endocrine neoplasia as well as endocrine complications of cancer therapy. The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center is one of the largest VA hospitals in the country, and a center for cardiovascular surgery, liver transplant and renal transplant. The endocrine clinics see a wide spectrum of thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary, adrenal and gonadal disorders, and there is an active insulin pump program. Texas Children’s Hospital gives our adult endocrine fellows exposure to a broad range of pathology they may not otherwise see, as well as greater exposure to type 1 diabetes and diabetes technology. This first year of fellowship is undoubtedly clinically intense. Fellows are navigating several different systems and cross-covering each other on the weekends. The result, though, is an unparalleled exposure to a broad spectrum of endocrinology.
In the second year of fellowship, our trainees are assigned to a research mentor. They continue to hone their clinical skills at their continuity clinic in Harris Health System’s Smith Clinic and in select outpatient clinics at their research site. The large bulk of their time, however, is protected for their research project. With the decrease in inpatient clinical responsibilities, the second year provides the fellow time to dig into their research projects.
Is our program the right one for you? The physicians who come into our program have a desire to learn by doing. They want a diverse clinical experience. Our alumni go on to both private practice and academic positions. Indeed, many of our faculty and the faculty at MD Anderson Cancer Center are alumni of this very program.
Our goal is to continue to grow and evolve to best meet the needs of our trainees. I am very proud of the program we have, and our extraordinary and dedicated faculty. Thank you for taking the time to learn about our program, and I wish you the best of luck in your future.
Ruchi Gaba, M.D., FACE, FEAA
Fellowship Program Director
