Fellowship Curriculum

The professional and educational goals of the endocrinology fellowship at the University of New Mexico are based on:

• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) six competencies
• American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) blueprint for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
• Association of Program Directors in Endocrinology (APDEM) curriculum
• Competencies in thyroid ultrasound/fine needle aspiration, continuous subcutaneous insulin infusions (insulin pump management), continuous glucose monitoring and bone mineral density interpretations

Fellows achieve these goals through the following:

Patient Care

Clinical practice includes inpatient consultation and outpatient clinics. Clinical and hospital experience involves:

• Gathering data
• Interpretation of normal and abnormal findings
• Laboratory interpretation
• Nuclear Medicine imaging and therapies
• Radiological imaging
• Stimulation and suppression testing

Fellows gain competency through clinical experience, educational series and in-services in the following procedures:

• Ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration of thyroid nodules
• Insulin pump management and continuous glucose monitoring interpretation
• Interpretation of bone mineral density (DEXA), adrenal imaging, and MRI sella/pituitary

Fellows obtain a detailed understanding of current costs of diagnosis and therapy of endocrinopathies.

Medical Knowledge

As part of their endocrinology program, fellows will:

• Develop textbook familiarity with normal and abnormal pathophysiology in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
• Participate in testing and imaging in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
• Gain hands-on experience with normal and abnormal clinical endocrinology.
• Teach normal and abnormal pathophysiology to medical students and residents.
• Receive education on basic research design and statistics and understand medical literature.

Scholarly Activities

Scholarly activities can include:

• Participation in a clinical research or quality improvement project with mentor guidance.
• Presenting a 10-15-minute research or case report or poster at a regional/national meeting.
• Writing a case report or review article.
• Writing a research manuscript.
• Writing an abstract.

Required Texts

Fellows should use:

• Greenspan Endocrinology or Williams Textbook of Endocrinology available at the UNM Health Sciences Library
• Endotext
• UpToDate
• Clinical practice guidelines (available electronically) through the Endocrine Society, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Diabetes Association and American Thyroid Association

Clinical Objectives

Clinical goals of the fellowship are:

• To become familiar with the most common clinical endocrinopathies, evaluation and management.
• To become familiar with the endocrine clinical emergencies, evaluation and management.
• To become familiar with the current medical literature and its interpretation related to clinical endocrinology.
• To develop a collegiality with endocrine faculty, colleagues and staff relative to carrying out patient care responsibilities.
• To develop interdisciplinary relationships with the disciplines interacting with endocrinologists on a routine basis.

Components of Familiarity

Fellows should have understanding of:

• Pathophysiology
• Natural history
• Therapeutic interventions
• Longitudinal clinical, laboratory and radiologic evaluation
• Questions and issues that need to be resolved
• Access to appropriate text and serial literature and understanding of interpretations of the literature