

Gastroenterology Fellowship
Program Overview
The Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship Program at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, in affiliation with Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), trains physicians in advanced skills in pediatric gastroenterology. Our 3-year program provides comprehensive specialty training in gastroenterology (GI), hepatology and nutrition.
You’ll learn to diagnose and treat children with acute and chronic diseases of the digestive system and nutritional disorders, as well as gain broad-based research experience in basic or clinical sciences. The program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in accordance with the guidelines of the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
Our Fellowship Program
The Nemours Gastroenterology Fellowship Program provides stimulating clinical training in gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition and exposure to liver transplantation. Our dynamic group of faculty clinicians and researchers are committed to helping you attain a quality education. Our fellows attend weekly educational sessions in addition to monthly pathology, radiology and physiology conferences and combined surgical rounds. Fellows also present and attend topic oriented journal clubs through out the year.
You’ll have opportunities to learn the indications, risks, benefits and techniques of performing procedures such as upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, percutaneous liver biopsy, capsule endoscopy, esophageal dilatation, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube insertions, variceal banding, pH/impedance probes and motility studies at our state-of-the-art pediatric GI endoscopy suite. You’ll learn to teach and mentor residents and medical students. You will conduct your own clinical or basic science research project under the supervision of one of our faculty members.
Training Overview
Our GI fellowship program will provide training in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Rotations include the GI inpatient service, the GI inpatient consultation service, the GI outpatient service as well as research and elective rotations. Fellows also attend their own continuity clinic a half day per week in which they will follow their own patients throughout the 3 years of fellowship. In-hospital electives include pediatric surgery, pathology and radiology. We also have an active liver transplantation program and our fellows do a month’s rotation on the liver transplant service.
Our fellows participate in and gain exposure to in-hospital committees and quality improvement projects. On a wider scope, our fellows participate in the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition fellows’ conferences in addition to other national and international meetings.
You’ll also gain valuable experience participating in the care of children who are followed in our specialty clinics such as those that focus on patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease and bowel dysfunction. Fellows will also attend liver clinic during their outpatient rotation. On their inpatient rotations, our fellows learn the intricacies of providing total parenteral nutrition as well as the management of complications that may result from this type of nutritional support.
During the on-call component, you’ll have experiences that improve several aspects of your competency-based training, including patient care, knowledge, interpersonal communications, professionalism, systems-based practice and others. You’ll work directly with emergency department staff and referring physicians doing urgent patient evaluations and other important activities.
During your training you’ll become proficient in a wide range of specialized GI diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as:
- Diagnostic EGD (and biopsy)
- Diagnostic colonoscopy (and biopsy)
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy (and biopsy)
- Ileoscopy via ileostomy (and biopsy)
- Polypectomy
- Hemostasis in GI bleeding
- Variceal band ligation, sclerotherapy, heater probe, argon plasma coagulation
- Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
- Liver biopsy
- Dilation of esophageal strictures
- Foreign body retrieval
- Capsule endoscopy
- Esophageal pH-multichannel impedance
- Breath hydrogen testing
- Pancreatic stimulation
- Calorimetry
During your second and third years, you’ll be able to choose electives that add to your knowledge in such GI-related disciplines as transplantation, pathology, radiology and surgery.
Questions About Applying
Fran Hackett, MHA
Fellowship Coordinator
(302) 298-7867
fran.hackett@nemours.org
Zarela Molle-Rios, MD
Program Director
(302) 651-5928
zarela.mollerios@nemours.org