Pediatric Transplant Hepatology Fellowship

Weekly Conferences

• Pediatric GI/Liver Fellows Rounds:
  Specific patient cases are presented for all fellows and faculty. There is open discussion about differential diagnosis, evaluation, acute management and chronic management.
• Liver Team Meeting Including Candidate Selection:
  Every week we have a multidisciplinary conference (including the hepatologists, transplant surgeons, transplant pharmacists, transplant dieticians, social workers and transplant nurse coordinators) for one to two hours to discuss all liver inpatients and outpatients. We review all potential transplant candidates and those children who are active on the transplant list. We discuss nutritional management of pre-transplant patients, option for live donation, exception scores and other transplant-specific topics.
• Transplant Surgery Lecture Series:
  Lecture series geared toward all elements of transplantation, including infectious and cardiovascular complications and presented by adult and pediatric faculty. Attendees include pediatric and adult fellows as well as transplant surgeons.

Monthly Conferences

• Pediatric Liver Pathology Conferences:
  Our liver pathologist, Hector Melin, MD, reviews normal liver histology and liver disease processes. Transplant specific pathology includes acute cellular rejection, chronic rejection, ischemic injury, biliary injury, viral injury, PTLD and drug-toxicities.
• Pediatric Radiology Conferences:
  Our radiologists review liver and GI cases that have presented to the inpatient/outpatient teams over the past month.
• Research Conferences:
  Faculty and fellows presents one hourlong lectures on their active research projects. 
• Journal Club:
  Fellows and faculty critically review seminal articles and recently published papers about liver disease and liver transplantation.
• M&M:
  Multidisciplinary meeting that reviews morbidities or mortality that have occurred in the liver or intestinal transplant recipients. In addition to graft loss and patient deaths, we also discuss new management strategies and present data on transplant topics such as acute liver failure and steroid resistant rejection. Attendees include interventional radiology, anesthesia, transplant surgery and neurology
• Adult Hepatology Conference:
  Fellows have the opportunity to attend the weekly adult hepatology conference particularly when there is a pediatric topic or a guest speaker.

Educational Responsibilities

Each transplant fellow will present a liver transplant topic conference and a research presentation at the conclusion of their one-year fellowship. The transplant fellow will be responsible for presenting all transplant candidates whose evaluation they participate in at our weekly team meeting/candidate selection meeting. Fellows will learn how to write letters for evaluation/transplant approval. They will also learn how to write PELD-appeal letters for transplant exception points.

• Lurie Children’s Medical Education and Training
• Lurie Children’s Office of Pediatric Fellowship Programs

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine seeks to attract inquisitive, motivated fellows and is committed to providing them with every opportunity for success. We encourage a diverse and inclusive work environment that allows each trainee to achieve their personal goals.

For more information on Northwestern’s commitment to diversity, please see the McGaw Diversity & Inclusion page, the Northwestern McGaw Underrepresented Residents & Fellows Forum and Feinberg School of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Pediatrics Diversity & Inclusion

The transplant fellow will have five months of time to dedicate to a clinical, translational or basic science research project in the areas of pediatric hepatology or transplantation medicine. With over $3.5 million per year in grant support, the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics offers endless research opportunities for our fellows.

Within our division, there is clinical, translation and basic science research occurring in the areas of liver transplantation, CF-related-liver disease, NAFLD, pediatric acute liver failure, autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, immunology and cytokines in liver disease, biliary atresia and health-related quality of life in the transplant population.​

• Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute Video
• Trainee Stories: Kyle MacQuarrie, MD, PhD Video

Clinical Training

​​The curriculum fulfills eligibility requirements of the American Board of Pediatrics for subspecialty certification in pediatric transplant hepatology. 

The fellow will spend six months of the year on the inpatient and consultation liver/transplant services at Lurie Children’s, with one of these months on a clinical rotation at Northwestern Medicine participating in adult liver transplant rounds and outpatient transplant hepatology clinic. The remaining five months of the year will be dedicated to a clinical, translational or basic science research project in the areas of pediatric hepatology and transplantation medicine. 
 
Throughout the entire year, the fellow will participate in bi-weekly hepatology/transplant clinic at Lurie Children’s and will be involved in all aspects or pre-, peri- and post-transplant care.

Call Responsibilities

The fellow will have limited on-call responsibilities that will include both GI and liver patients. Furthermore, they will be expected to observe three liver transplants and go out on three organ procurements. In addition, transplant fellows are encouraged to observe two intra-operative cholangiograms, two Kasai procedures and at least one percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography procedure. Transplant fellows will have the opportunity to participate in the care of patients with acute liver failure, GI bleeding requiring sclerotherapy or banding or urgent transplant evaluation.

Vacation​

The fellow will have three weeks of vacation that can be taken in one- or two-week blocks according to ACGME regulations. ​

​The fellowship is available for interested individuals who are board eligible/certified in general pediatrics and have completed an ACGME-accredited three-year fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology. 

• Online application form
• Recent photograph
• Curriculum vitae (where applicable, please include education, post-graduate training, additional training, work experience, honors or awards, research experience, publications and presentations)
• Personal statement outlining your career goals in pediatric gastroenterology
• Three letters of recommendation, which should include one from your GI fellowship program director or GI division chief.  If letters are being submitted electronically, they should be sent in PDF format, signed electronically and sent directly from the author’s email address.
• USMLE scores for Steps 1, 2 and 3
• Medical school transcripts
• ECFMG (required for foreign medical graduates)

Discover the many ways our faculty are impacting children's health beyond the hospital.

Each year, as many as 20 third-year pediatric residents travel to Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza, Tanzania, to participate in an educational initiative that provides exposure to the management of complex pediatric diseases in a low-resource setting. Learn more about this extraordinary opportunity.

Housestaff training through McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University provides diverse and challenging clinical experiences and world-class education located in the heart of the beautiful city of Chicago. Learn more via the links to the McGaw website below.

• Why Northwestern?
• Diversity & Inclusion

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