Urology Fellowship Guide: Endourology

Endourology Fellowships

Lap/Endo fellowships have classically been one- or two-year fellowship. Beginning with the 2008-2009 match, the Endourologic Society is only approving two-year fellowships for accreditation with a split between clinical time and research experience. Consequently, many programs which have classically been one-year are now shifting to two-years, while some may continue without Society accreditation. The transition and makeup of programs switching to two-years may change significantly over the next few years. Programs already accredited have four years to make the transition. In general, it is likely that many non-accredited clinical fellowships will continue to train practitioners hoping to gain additional experience in laparoscopy, while many of the accredited programs will tend to focus on training fellows interested in an academic career.

The training and focus for fellowships are tremendously variable. Many programs focus heavily on laparoscopic training, while others focus more on stone disease. For a fellow hoping to balance their experience it would be important to get exposure to a busy medical stone clinic and a skilled laparoscopic mentor. For further details individual programs may be contacted, or you may be able to get a sense of the surgical volume by looking at the reported annual case numbers on the endourology website. The number of required index cases are: 60 laparoscopic surgeries, 60 ureteroscoic procedures, and 30 percutaneous procedures.

Timeline: The initial application deadline is mid-April the year before graduation (i.e. in a 5-year residency the application would be due mid-April of the PGY-4 year). Interviews continue from May-June, and preference lists are due July 1st, with the results a few weeks later.

Why do an Endourologic fellowship?
Endourology is the future. More and more cases are being done laparoscopically and robotically. This has partially been fueled by patient desire but also due to advances in technology that are likely to continue. An additional plus: laparoscopy and endourology providers retain the surgical skill set to perform a large variety of procedures and have a skill set that would be valuable in academic as well as community practices.

Why not?
The extra year or two of training can certainly be a negative, especially for a resident that feels relatively comfortable with laparoscopy and the management of stone disease. For many, this may be the necessary step to a career in academic medicine, but for someone ultimately interested in private practice, an extra year of research could be irrelevant (and costly). An additional issue of importance is the increased training of laparoscopy and robotics in Urologic Oncology fellowships. This changing trend may affect the volume of minimally-invasive cases performed by individuals trained through endrourology fellowships. A resident interested in a lap/endo fellowship should carefully evaluate their ultimate goals before deciding on a particular fellowship.

Contributing writer: Matthew D. Sorensen, MD

Columbia University
Program Director: Jaime Landman, M.D.
E-mail: landmanj@yahoo.com
Co-Director: Mantu Gupta
Dept. of Urology, HIP 11th Floor
161 Fort Washington Avenue
New York, NY 10032
Tel: 212-305-5630
Fax: 212-342-0694

George Washington University
Program Director: Thomas Jarrett, M.D.
E-mail: tjarrett@mfa.gwu.edu
Department of Urology
2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C., 20037, USA
Tel: 202-741-3115
Fax: 202-741-3113

New York Medical College
Program Director: Majid Eshghi, M.D.
E-Mail: Majid_Eshghi@nymc.edu
4th Floor NY Medical College
Room 459, Munger Pavillion Valhalla,
NY 10595
Tel: (914) 594-4300
Fax: (914) 594-4394

St. Vincent's Medical Center
Program Director: Michael Grasso, III, M.D
Email: Mgrasso3@earthlink.net
St. Vincent's Medical Center
170 West 12th Street, Cronin Bldg. 205
New York, NY 10011
Tel: 212 604 1270
Fax: 212 604 1274

University of California, Irvine
Program Directors: Ralph V. Clayman, M.D. and Elspeth McDougall, M.D.
Department of Urology
101 The City Drive
Bldg 55 Rm 304
Orange, California 92868-3298
Phone: (714) 456-6782 (Ms. Penny Bushey)
Fax: (714) 456-5062

University of Chicago
Program Director: Arieh L. Shalhav, M.D.
E-mail: ashalhav@uchicago.edu
5841 S. Maryland Avenue – MC 6038
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773-834-9889
Fax: 773-702-1001

Urology of Virgina, Sentara Medical Group
Program Director: Michael D. Fabrizio, M.D. FACS
E-mail mdfabrizio@cox.net
Urology of Virgina, Sentara Medical Group
400 W. Brambleton Ave., Ste. 100
Norfolk, Virgina 23510-1196
Tel: 757-457-5100
Fax: 757-626-0768

Washington University School of Medicine
Program Directors: Sherb Figenshau, M.D., Sam Bhayani, M.D., Ramakrishna Venkatesh M.D.
Urologic Surgery Center
4921 Parkview Place, Suite C, Floor 11
St. Louis, MO 63110
Tel: (314) 362-8200
Fax: (314) 367-5016

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