Gastroenterology Los Angeles Medical Center
Letter from the Program Director
We are delighted you have taken the opportunity to visit our website and I hope that you find the information here helpful as you become more acquainted with the training program here at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center.
I would also like to use this opportunity to share some of the philosophy and vision of our program. We believe it is essential to provide our fellows with the skills necessary to thrive in the face of the many changes facing our healthcare system. Therefore, excellence in clinical training is only the first step. We believe that in addition, emphasis on a patient-centered approach to medicine and continuous quality improvement are essential components to success in the new era of accountable care.
We also place a high value on innovation. This is evident in our history as Kaiser Permanente demonstrated the value of an alternative approach to healthcare delivery in the United States. This emphasis on innovation applies to our approach to fellowship training as well. We have adopted a “personalized” approach to training such that the elective and research experiences are tailored to fit the individual interest of each fellow. As a small program operating in the context of a large, regional network we have the flexibility to support our fellows’ interests.
Once again, we are grateful that you have taken the time to visit us online and I encourage you to contact us for any further information.
Sincerely yours,
Bechien U Wu, MD, MPH
Program Director
About the Program
The Fellowship Training Program in Gastroenterology at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC) has been training gastroenterologists for more than 25 years. Many of our fellows have gone on to distinguished careers in the field and include respected contributors to gastroenterological research and education in the United States.
The program is comprised of nine gastroenterologists and five hepatologists, who are actively involved in teaching, patient care, and research, staff the Gastroenterology Division of the Department of Internal Medicine.
The Gastroenterology Training Program is a three-year program. We accept only two first-year fellows annually. The program is a well-rounded, clinically oriented program covering all aspects of gastroenterology, including gastrointestinal physiology, pathology, pathophysiology, imaging, diagnostic and therapeutic and capsule endoscopy, pancreaticobiliary disorders, diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), gastrointestinal motility, hepatology, and liver transplant evaluation and follow-up.
Program Highlights:
- Strong clinical and didactic focus
- Large general and sub-specialty case referral base
- Affiliations with University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California
- Journal Club
- Weekly basic science conference and didactic lecture at University of California, Los Angeles
- Multi-disciplinary case conferences
- Weekly Tumor Board conference
- Weekly Pathology conference
- Extensive resources for fellow-led clinical research and quality improvement
A Personalized Approach to Gastroenterology Training:
A total of 15 months of electives and/or research time is available to fellows during the course of their 3-year fellowship. A strong emphasis is placed on developing a tailored curriculum for each fellow to maximize both the breadth and depth of their training experience. Specifically, unique elective experiences and protected research time are incorporated into each fellow’s schedule to enable them to gain additional training in an area of interest that may include either sub-specialty focus such as motility, inflammatory bowel disease, Hepatology, therapeutic endoscopy or generally applicable skills e.g. quality/performance improvement. The culmination if this 15-month experience is completion of either a clinical research study suitable for publication or quality improvement project suitable for implementation.