Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship - San Antonio

Director's Message

Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship - San Antonio is a small but mighty program. We offer state of the art training with care and compassion at CHRISTUS Children’s with many sub-specialties only found in large fellowship programs, but with a personalized touch. Our fellowship serves a large diverse population providing our trainees the opportunity to work with a broad spectrum of pathology. Fellows are supported by highly experienced Pediatric Gastroenterology faculty and the first of its kind Pediatric Advanced Endoscopy fellowship. We invite you to explore our program, talk with our trainees, and view all San Antonio has to offer.

Jaime Echartea, M.D.
Program Director of Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

About the Program

The Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship in San Antonio is the first program of its kind in San Antonio. The Baylor College of Medicine Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition currently includes six faculty members and a support staff of 12.

The clinical training program is conducted under the auspices of CHRISTUS Children’s and includes six clinical faculty members who perform more than 3,000 outpatient and more than 500 in-patient consultations annually. Research training will be supported by The Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Clinical Research Center and in association with the Texas Medical Center and benefits from abundant research resources of the center in general and of Baylor College of Medicine in particular. The division recruits one new fellow a year, for a total of three fellows in the program.

The goal of this training program is to educate pediatricians to become outstanding clinicians who can also compete at the cutting edge of clinical research in academia. The program is designed around the guidelines developed by the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, and is intended to allow trainees to meet the requirements for certification by the Sub-Board for Pediatric Gastroenterology of the American Board of Pediatrics.

All entrants must have completed the equivalent of three years of ACGME-accredited residency training in pediatrics and be board certified or board eligible in pediatrics from the American Board of Pediatrics.

Curriculum

The basic training program consists of an average 18 months of clinical training and 18 months of research training. This 36-month program provides the trainee with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills required for an academic career, which includes clinical service, teaching and research.

Second- and third-years will be heavily focus on research and participation in fellows’ continuity clinic and teaching. The fellows participate in the teaching of medical students, residents and present at clinical case conferences. The program’s director of research helps the fellow to identify a clinical or basic science research project, which appeals to the specific interest of that individual and helps identify an appropriate mentor to guide the development, approval and execution of the scholarly activity.

During second and third year there is a one-month Pediatric Transplant Hepatology Rotation at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Housing expenses are covered by the fellowship program. There is also an opportunity for an additional elective for this rotation.

Didactics are weekly for fellow’s conference, morning report, Grand Rounds and sign-out with attending and fellows participation, and monthly for Journal Club, Janus Rounds and Pathology Rounds. In addition, the fellows participate actively in discussion of case reports, a lecture series by the faculty, lectures given by the fellows and a number of conferences throughout the three years of training.

View the block diagram schedule for PGY 4-6 trainees in the Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition Fellowship.

Our fellows participate in the Pediatric Subspecialty Fellows College.