Fellowship (medicine)

Fellowship (medicine)
A fellowship is the period of medical training, in the United States and Canada, that a physician, dentist, or veterinarian may undertake after completing a specialty training program (residency). During this time (usually more than one year), the physician is known as a fellow. Fellows are capable of acting as an attending physician or a consultant physician in the specialist field in which they were trained, such as internal medicine or pediatrics. After completing a fellowship in the relevant sub-specialty, the physician is permitted to practice without direct supervision by other physicians in that sub-specialty, such as cardiology or oncology.
United States
In the US, the majority of fellowships are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education ("ACGME"). There are a few programs that are not accredited, yet are actually well received, given the importance of being a Board Certified Physician in a primary specialty, where a Fellowship is often more based on research productivity.
ACGME Fellowships
The following are organized based on specialty required for the fellowship.
Internal Medicine or Pediatrics
Adolescent Medicine
Allergy/Immunology
Cardiology
Child abuse (pediatrics only)
Critical care medicine
Emergency medicine
Endocrinology
Gastroenterology
Hematology
Infectious diseases
Neonatology (pediatrics only)
Nephrology
Oncology
Pulmonology
Rheumatology
General Surgery
Complex General Surgical Oncology
Hand Surgery
Pediatric Surgery
Trauma, Burns, and Surgical Critical Care
Vascular Surgery
Colon and Rectal Surgery
Thoracic Surgery
Hospice and palliative medicine
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Non-ACGME Accredited Fellowships:
Abdominal Transplant Surgery
Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery
Advanced Gastrointestinal, Minimally Invasive, Foregut, and Bariatric Surgery
Breast Surgery
Endocrine Surgery
Neurology
Vascular Neurology
Endovascular Surgical Neuroradiology (Interventional Neurology, or Neurointerventional Radiology [NIR])
Neurocritical Care
Clinical Neurophysiology
Movement Disorder
Dementia/Behavioral Neurology
Neuroimmunology
Neuro-oncology
Neuro-ophthalmology
Geriatric Neurology
Headache Medicine
Sleep Medicine
Epilepsy
Neurohospitalist
Neurorehabilitation
Sports Neurology
ObGyn
Gynecologic Oncology
Maternal Fetal Medicine
Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
Reproductive Endocrinology
Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery1
Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology1
1 Not officially recognized as a subspecialty by the American Board of Obstetrics/Gynecology or the American College of Obstetrics/Gynecologists.
Ophthalmology
Cornea
Glaucoma
Medical retina
Neuro-ophthalmology
Oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery
Oncology
Pathology
Pediatric
Refractive
Uveitis
Vitreoretinal surgery
Psychiatry
Addiction Medicine
Addiction Psychiatry
Brain Injury Medicine
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Forensic Psychiatry
Geriatric Psychiatry
Headache Medicine
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Sleep Medicine
Urology
Pediatric
Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
Urologic Oncology
Endourology
Orthopaedic
Hand
Sports Medicine
Pediatrics
Spine
Foot and Ankle
Joint replacement
Trauma
Oncology
Other
Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
Hematopathology
Cytopathology
Traumatologist
Clinical Informatics (multiple specialties)
Geriatrics
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Interventional Radiology
Sleep medicine (multiple specialties)
Sports medicine (multiple specialties)
Transplant hepatology
Requirements
In general, ACGME accredited programs require completion of ACGME-accredited, RCPSC-accredited or CFPC- accredited residency program, however, exceptions for an ACGME-International- accredited residency programs and non-ACGME-accredited residency programs are possible. International medical graduates must be ECFMG certified. Some fellowship specialties require participation in special matching programs like Specialties Matching Service® (SMS®) or SF Match.
Combined fellowships
There are a number of programs offering a combined fellowship, training in two or more sub-specialties as part of a single program.
Pulmonary/Critical Care: this type of program is more common than Pulmonary Disease (non-combination) programs. As of 2007, there were 130 ACGME-accredited combined Pulmonary/Critical Care programs while only 25 programs for Pulmonary Disease alone.
Hematology/Oncology: as of 2005, there were 125 ACGME-accredited programs for Hematology-Oncology, while only 12 programs for Hematology alone and 18 for Oncology alone.
Geriatrics/Oncology: the American Board of Internal Medicine approved a 3-year combined fellowship training program in medical oncology and geriatrics. The John A. Hartford Foundation initially funded 10 institutions for this type of training.
See also
Medical intern
Medical specialty
Physician specialty codes
Society of General Internal Medicine
Residency (medicine)
Attending physician
References
External links
General Internal Medicine Fellowship Directory from the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM)
Medical education in the United States
Medical education in Canada