Main Fellowship Affiliation

East Carolina University Health Medical Center

Location

600 Moye Boulevard - 3E129 – Division of Endocrinology. Greenville, NC 27834

Program Director

Beatriz Ramirez, MD

Program Coordinator

Latisha Scott

Main Contact Phone

(252)744-2567

Main Contact Email

SCOTTLA@ecu.edu

Program History

The East Carolina University/ Vidant Medical Center has sponsored a one-year clinical diabetes fellowship since 1984. As of June 30, 2021, there have been 33 fellows who have successfully completed this program. The objectives of this fellowship are to train primary care physicians to be experts in the clinical management of all patients with diabetes mellitus. This includes treatment of both outpatient and inpatients adults, outpatient children and adolescents and management of pregnant women with both gestational and pre-gestational diabetes. The trainees become experts in glycemic management and the prevention and treatment of diabetic complications (e.g., neuropathy) and co-morbidities (e.g., obesity and dyslipidemias).

Program Curriculum

Facilities (Training Sites)

1. ECU Adult Endocrinology-Diabetes Clinic

2. ECU Pediatric Endocrinology-Diabetes Clinic

3. Vidant Medical Center (teaching-tertiary care hospital)

4. Vidant Medical Center Wound Healing Center

Clinical and Research Components

The fellows are supervised by the attending physicians in both the clinics and on hospital rounds. When they are not on call, each fellow has the following clinics each week: Four ½ day clinics in Adult Diabetes, one ½ day in Pediatric Diabetes, ½ day in Diabetes OB/Pregnancy Clinic. There are also elective rotations in wound clinic. In these clinics the fellows, under the mentorship of the attending physicians, evaluate and manage diabetes in both new and return patients functioning as consultants for primary care physicians who refer these patients for diabetes management. The fellows are taught to follow the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines for treatment of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as management of diabetic complications and co-morbidities such as lipid disorders and obesity.

In addition, each fellow is on call for the inpatient service for ~ 10 weeks during the year. On this service, they perform consultations, follow-up visits, and recommend discharge therapy – utilizing the latest ADA inpatient protocols.  Since this is primarily a clinical fellowship there is no formal research component. However, each year the fellows present clinical vignette posters at the annual Department of Internal Medicine and the G.M.E. Research Days.

Participant’s Supervisory and Patient Care Responsibilities

It should be noted that all the fellow’s consultation and progress notes are reviewed, edited if necessary, and cosigned by attendings. 

Procedural Requirements:

All fellows are trained on continuous glucose monitor analysis and interpretation as well as insulin pump management. However, there is no invasive procedures in the fellowship.

 Didactic Components

 The curriculum is composed of weekly seminars for one or more hours covering the entire spectrum of diabetes. In addition to the Endocrinology faculty, visiting faculty from other divisions of Internal Medicine, and other Departments including Surgery, Ophthalmology, Podiatry, Psychiatry and Bariatric Surgery lecture on important topics. In addition, the fellows spend a few ½ days in ophthalmology and podiatry clinics. All lecture materials including PowerPoint slides and pdfs of important articles are provided to fellows during their training.

During the academic year each fellow is required to lead two or more journal clubs and give two or more formal CME presentations for Endocrinology Grand Rounds. Each of these talks requires weeks of preparation since the fellows must formally present the topic in PowerPoint format for at least 45 minutes and be prepared to answer question from faculty and other attendees for the remainder of the hour.

Application process/dates: Applications accepted after September 1st each year. Application deadline is December 1st. Interviews are held January to February with final selection of fellows to be completed by March.