Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University
132 S 10th Street
Suite 585, Main Building
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107
215-955-8900 (V)
Website


1 Position Available

Program Type: Both ERCP & EUS

Authorized Administrative Official: Kelly Moore (email)

Program Director: Anand Kumar, MD (email)
Program Director Phone: 215-955-8900
Program Director Fax: 215-955-6678

Duration: 1 Year

Inclusive Dates of the Program: 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026

Program Website: www.jefferson.edu/university/skmc/departments/medicine/divisions/gastroenterology-hepatology/fellowships.html

Accepts applicants from outside of North America? Yes

Accepts applicants with J1 visas? Yes

Accepts applicants with H1B visas? Yes

Accepts applicants with E3 visas? Yes

Supervised Procedures

Procedure		 Faculty Involved in AEF Training Total Annual Volume Annual Volume with hands-on AEF Involvement
ERCP 5 1200 550
EUS 7 1100 450
Lower GI EMR 6 150 50
Esophagogastroduodenal EMR 6 100 50
Esophagogastroduodenal ablation (e.g., RFA) 4 110 40
Small bowel enteroscopy 7 300 50
ESD 2 90 20
Bariatric endoscopy 2 30 15
POEM 2 70 20
Other (specify)
Enteral Stents 		6 90 60

Unsupervised Trainee Activities

Procedure		 Value
General GI procedures (per year) 0
Inpatient service (weeks/year) 0
Ambulatory clinics (per year) 0
Committed time for research (days/month) 0

Program Reporting Summary

The ASGE Training Committee requested that each AEF program voluntarily submit an annual report summarizing their advanced endoscopy procedure volume. You can view the provided report below.

Requirements for Application

  1. Standard ASGE Application Packet
    • ASGE Application
    • Post-Undergraduate Education
    • USMLE Scores
    • Certification of Completion of Residency
      1. Prior to appointment in the advanced endoscopy fellowship, fellows should have completed a three-year ACGME-accredited gastroenterology fellowship
      2. Fellows from non-ACGME-accredited programs must have completed at least three years of gastroenterology education prior to starting the fellowship
    • Personal Statement
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • 3 Letters of Reference

Additional Information about Program

The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Thomas Jefferson University consists of 50 faculty members and over 80 ancillary staff. The Division supports four categorical gastroenterology fellows annually, a hepatology fellow, an IBD fellow, and either one or two advanced endoscopy fellows. The members of the Division perform over 20,000 endoscopic procedures per annum including over 1100 ERCP procedures and 1100 EUS procedures. This volume allows advanced fellows to tailor their training to suit the individual's research interests and career goals.

There are nine physicians who perform advanced endoscopic procedures and are instrumental in the education and procedural training of the advanced endoscopy fellow. The advanced endoscopy fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University has been successfully training fellows since the year 2001. Previous fellows in this position have accepted academic positions across the United States and internationally. Applicants considered for the advanced endoscopy fellowship must be currently enrolled in or have completed an accredited three-year gastroenterology fellowship. The endoscopic ultrasound aspects of the training program benefits from a collaborative relationship with one of the strongest ultrasound divisions (within the Department of Radiology) in the world. Strong collaborations with interdepartmental radiology and surgery further the clinical and academic experience.

Endoscopic Facility
Thomas Jefferson University boasts a state-of-the-art endoscopy unit. The University and Hospital operate nine procedure rooms at the main campus with 46 staff positions. The Interventional Endoscopy Unit (IEU) is designed as four mini operating rooms to perform high-end procedures including ERCP, EUS, deep enteroscopy, ESD, submucosal tunneling with endoscopic resection, endoscopic suturing, fistula closure, photodynamic therapy, cryoablation, radiofrequency ablation (biliary and esophageal), electrohydraulic lithotripsy, holmium laser, enteral stenting, bariatric therapies, and POEM. Three rooms are fully equipped for ERCP and all rooms are fully equipped for EUS. Each room has the capacity to provide general anesthesia. Endoscopic procedures are viewed on wall-mounted 50-inch flat panel monitors. A fifth mini operating room for the performance of advanced procedures is located one floor away including general anesthesia and fluoroscopy where the majority of the ESD and POEM is performed. The Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Unit (GEU) houses five state-of-the-art procedure rooms with a focus on the efficient performance of standard outpatient endoscopic procedures.

All procedure rooms are linked to a state-of-the-art 50 seat conference facility. The facility has four projection screens, each with the capability to simultaneously display four different images. The facility is designed so that persons in the conference room can view and have a two-way conversation with faculty members performing endoscopic procedures in any of the ten procedure rooms. At the same time persons in the conference room can view the endoscopic, fluoroscopic, or ultrasonic images in a HIPAA compliant format.

Inpatient Pancreaticobiliary Service
The Pancreaticobiliary and Advanced endoscopy section at Thomas Jefferson University manages our own primary inpatient service. This service facilitates the ability to transfer patients from outside hospitals in need of advanced endoscopic procedures and pancreaticobiliary care (i.e. failed ERCP, altered anatomy, pancreatic necrosis, etc...). The inpatient Pancreaticobiliary Team is robust, consisting of a therapeutic endoscopy attending, inpatient hospitalist attending, dedicated nurse practitioner (responsible for patient education and seamless transitions of care from inpatient to outpatient settings), Advanced Endoscopy fellow, Gastroenterology fellow, and medical students.

AEF Fellowship Funding
The AEF at Thomas Jefferson University is a fully funded position. The fellow therefore gets to focus 100% on advanced procedural training and research rather than remunerative activities.

Educational Objectives
The one-year fellowship in advanced endoscopy is designed to develop the knowledge and skills to become an academic advanced endoscopist. This not only includes outstanding technical training but emphasizes cognitive aspects of performing advanced procedures.
These aspects include:
• Understanding the pathophysiology, natural history, and literature regarding disease entities associated with the performance of advanced endoscopic procedures.
• Understanding the literature that supports the endoscopic techniques performed.
• Education toward patient selection and periprocedural management
• Developing skills necessary to interpret the results of related studies (CT, MRI, interventional radiology studies, barium studies, US, HIDA, PET etc.)
• Determining which advanced procedure or combination thereof is most appropriate for the patient’s clinical situation.
• Stratifying patients’ procedural risk
• Understanding the potential procedural complications and their management.
• Disclosing to the patient the risks of the proposed procedure and obtaining informed consent

Participation in the advanced endoscopy program includes:
• Admission of inpatients transferred specifically for advanced procedures
• Patient preparation for advanced endoscopic procedures
• The performance of advanced procedures
• On-call availability and responsibilities for after hour advanced procedures
• Report dictation, image and video archiving and management
• Research data entry
• Attendance and presentation at institutional, regional, and national conferences
• Inpatient consultation for patient’s considered for advanced endoscopic procedures.
• Inpatient care of patient’s having undergone advanced endoscopic procedures
• Designing, writing, and conducting clinical research
• Authoring research manuscripts
• Exposure to and participation in outpatient pancreaticobiliary clinic

The fellowship emphasizes endoscopic research and each fellow is expected to be actively involved in multiple research projects and produce at least one independent first author publication by the end of the fellowship year. There is an Endoscopic Research Group that meets weekly to discuss current and proposed research protocols. Clinical care is facilitated by a daily conference to discuss the management of complex inpatients.

Please Note: All data in this program description is entered on a voluntary basis