Scholarship

As an academic training program, we aim to encourage curiosity, our fellows’ desire to learn, teach and innovate, and their efforts towards improving practice and processes. While we recognize that research may not be a career interest for all, during the fellowship training at UMass Chan, participation in scholarly activities is required for all fellows. Based on their academic, career, and clinical interests, fellows can choose to work with one or multiple UMass Chan GI faculty who have active projects in varying sub-disciplines. They are also encouraged to develop and implement novel ideas with the support of a principal faculty investigator. Considering requirements set by the ACGME and the UMass Chan GME, the following are the requirements set by the training program:

1. Each fellow is expected to participate in an ongoing quality improvement/patient safety project every year, following the LEAN model adapted by UMass Chan.
2. Each fellow is expected to actively participate in clinical research, basic science/translational research, or equivalent PI-approved scholarly activity.
3. Fellows can work together in small groups, as long as each fellow is actively involved and fulfills the requirements below.
4. The requirements for a manuscript and presentations (below) refer to projects started during the fellowship training, not prior.
5. Prior to graduation, each fellow is required to draft a manuscript as a first author and submit it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
6. Each fellow is required to submit two abstracts to a recognized regional or national conference (ACG, DDW, AASLD, UEGW, etc.), one of which has to be as a first author. The fellow is expected to present the poster if the abstract is accepted or deliver an oral presentation if selected. 
7. In addition to the above, each fellow is expected to present a poster on the progress of all of his/her quality improvement, patient safety, and clinical research project efforts during the Annual UMass Chan GI Research Day. If the project is completed or near completion, the fellow may be asked to give an oral presentation by the division chair.

UMass Chan GI has a talented teaching faculty that provides mentorship and opportunities for the fulfillment of the criteria set above. For any fellow who has a strong interest in basic science/lab research or translational research projects, UMass Chan also has the resources available to support a research pathway during training. We encourage any interested fellow to speak with the program director and division chair early in his/her first year if this is a career interest.