Graduate Medical Education Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship

The most important task of our Fellowship Program is the education of our fellows. In addition to the extensive clinical experience our fellows acquire in the inpatient and outpatient settings, the Fellowship Program is unique in the breadth and depth of its educational curriculum, which has been carefully designed and refined to provide fellows with comprehensive exposure to all areas of pediatric endocrinology. Integrating principles of adult learning, this curriculum uses a variety of educational formats including interactive lectures, discussions, journal clubs, seminars and case conferences. Fellows also develop their own skills as educators by giving presentations in a variety of settings.

The Fellowship educational curriculum begins with our Endocrine Summer Series, an annual introductory lecture series held from July to late September. Two additional courses designed specifically for our fellows—Fundamentals of Endocrinology and Endocrinology Fellows’ Journal Club—span all three years of fellowship.

Endocrine Summer Series

This series consists of twice-weekly seminars on core clinical topics in pediatric endocrinology, each presented by a faculty expert in the relevant clinical area. The primary goal of this series is to introduce first-year fellows to key concepts of the pathophysiology and clinical management of disorders that they will encounter frequently on the inpatient and outpatient clinical services. Summer Series topics include:

Fundamentals of Endocrinology 

This course consists of an annual series of 24 interactive lectures/discussions on endocrine physiology and pathophysiology by topic-expert faculty, with an emphasis on basic mechanisms and molecular and genetic principles. These concepts serve as a critical basis for clinical practice and research, as well as preparation for the Endocrinology Board examination. This course meets 2-3 times monthly through the 3 years of fellowship.

Endocrinology Fellows’ Journal Club 

This Journal Club is a 3-year revolving curriculum for fellows consisting of 30 journal articles selected to meet the dual goals of 1) increasing knowledge of key original evidence that forms the basis of current Pediatric Endocrinology practice, and 2) increasing knowledge of core principles of clinical research required to interpret and contribute to the medical literature (as required by the American Board of Pediatrics). Articles are discussed monthly in a journal club format, facilitated by expert faculty, and each fellow completes the entire curriculum over 3 years of fellowship.

Additional conferences and education

Fellow education is supplemented by numerous other conferences including Endocrine Clinical Case Conferences (presented by the first-year fellows), Endocrinology Division Seminar, and Endocrine Grand Rounds. A variety of subspecialty conferences are also available (e.g., diabetes, thyroid, bone), as time and interest permit. A full list of conferences is below.

Weekly conferences

• Endocrine Clinical Case Conference (led by first-year fellows)
• Endocrinology Division Seminar
• Endocrine Grand Rounds (with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital)
• Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds
• Additional optional conferences at Joslin Diabetes Center and other affiliated institutions

Bi-weekly/Monthly conferences

• Fundamentals of Endocrinology (fellows only)
• Endocrinology Fellows’ Journal Club (fellows only)
• Reproductive Endocrinology Joint Conference with Division of Adolescent Medicine
• Diabetes Case Conference
• Neuroendocrine and Cancer Survivorship Conference
• Pediatric Thyroid Clinical Conference
• Fracture Friday: Pediatric Bone Clinical Conference
• JCEM Lightning Journal Club
• Endocrine Clinical Research Unit Town Hall
• Endocrine Division Basic Research Meeting
• Longwood Area Thyroid Clinical Conference