The educational objectives of the Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship program are accomplished through an appropriate blend of supervised patient care responsibilities, clinical teaching and didactic conferences. The program does not rely on fellows to fulfill non-physician service, moonlighting, or general obstetrics and gynecology night call to cover salaries.
For trainees in the gynecology track, 24 of the 36 months of training are devoted to female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery clinical service. Urology tracked trainees complete a total of 24 months of clinical service. According to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery fellows who were trained in OB-GYN are required to have at least 12 months of research completed in 12 one-month blocks with no more than four hours per week (averaged over four weeks) spent in non-research activities. This includes all non-research related clinical activities. Therefore, each fellow has eight months of clinical service and four months of research time for each of three consecutive academic years as outlined in the table below.
Didactic Sessions
The Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship program includes regularly scheduled journal clubs, case/urodynamic/surgical video seminars, didactic lectures and morbidity/mortality conferences consistent with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirements as follows.
| Week | Day | Conference | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Friday | Didactic Lecture PGY5 | PGY5 is responsible for a presentation of key learning objectives outlined in the ABOG Guide to Learning for FPMRS. Therefore, the entire guide is covered by didactic lectures as part of the curricula over a two-year cycle. |
| 2 | Friday | Faculty Lecture | Core, adjunct and visiting faculty lecture monthly. Topics range from foundations of FPMRS practice to new and emerging surgical/clinical topics. |
| 3 | Friday | Research Meeting & Case Conference | Forum for discussion of new, innovative research ideas, progress reports for ongoing industry and investigator-initiated research projects and advisory consultations for research design, IRB submission, and data collection/analysis. Fellows also present upcoming complicated or interesting cases for review and discussion. |
| 4 | Friday | Journal Club | Each fellow is responsible for the scientific review and evaluation of a published FPMRS specific peer review journal article chosen by the program director. |
| 5 | Friday | Morbidity/Mortality | Review patient cases associated with complications related primarily to surgical intervention. |
| Quarterly | Friday | Multi-disciplinary Pelvic | Representatives from the division, female urology, colorectal floor conference surgery, gastroenterology, radiology and chronic pelvic pain participate in a virtual conference lead by fellows discuss complicated cases and imaging. |
Scholarly Activity
The fellowship program allocates adequate educational resources to facilitate fellows’ involvement in scholarly activity. According to ACGME program requirements for the female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery fellowship, each fellow, under the direction of a faculty mentor, must complete a comprehensive written scholarly paper or quality improvement project (thesis) during the program that demonstrates utilization of advanced research methodology and techniques, including research design and quantitative analysis, collection and statistical analysis of information obtained from a structured basic laboratory and/or clinical research setting and synthesis of the scientific literature, hypothesis testing and description of findings and results. Each graduating fellow must give an oral presentation of an original scholarly project (thesis), which is formally assessed by the faculty.
According to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology Bulletin for Subspecialty Certification in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, documentation of publication or acceptance for publication by a referred journal must be submitted with the thesis to meet the requirements for application to the oral board examination for gynecology tracked fellows. Publication or acceptance of a thesis for publication by a refereed journal does not guarantee acceptance of the thesis for the oral examination.
Research Training
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is committed to developing well-educated clinical investigators with knowledge of the basic principles of research, including how research is conducted, evaluated, explained to patients and applied to patient care.
This program also has clinical and laboratory research facilities equipped to allow fellows to engage in scholarly activities of their choosing.
| Local resource | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (ICTSI) | Indianapolis | Indiana CTSI is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) and state-funded collaboration between IU School of Medicine, Purdue University and University of Notre Dame to facilitate the translation of scientific discoveries in the lab into clinical trials and new patient treatments. |
| Regenstrief Institute | Indianapolis | Regenstrief is an internationally respected informatics and healthcare research organization affiliated with IU School of Medicine, recognized for its role in improving quality of care, increasing efficiency of healthcare delivery, preventing medical errors and enhancing patient safety. |
| Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction | Bloomington | The Kinsey Institute promotes interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sex, gender and reproduction. |
| Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering – Engineered Biomaterials and Tissue Systems | West Lafayette | Engineered biomaterial research focuses on a wide range of natural and synthetic components that might be used to design novel devices to replace diseased or damaged tissues or create artificial joints. Tissue engineering research focuses on techniques to provide replacement tissues and/or the construction of scaffolds that can allow the body to heal itself. |
Publications
Faculty and fellows in this program publish their research findings in various journals and reviews. Below is a listing of past publications.