Fellowship (medicine)
A fellowship is the period of medical training in the United States and Canada that a physician or dentist may undertake after completing a specialty training program (residency). During this time (usually more than one year), the physician is known as a fellow. Fellows are capable of acting as attending physician or consultant physician in the generalist field in which they were trained, such as internal medicine or pediatrics. After completing a fellowship in the relevant sub-specialty, the physician is permitted to practice without direct supervision by other physicians in that sub-specialty, such as cardiology or oncology.
Recognized ACGME fellowships
Most medical sub-specialties have formalized fellowship programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
- Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
- Neonatology
- Hematopathology
- Cytopathology
- Orthopaedic
- Traumatologist
- Cardiology
- Critical care medicine
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology
- Geriatrics
- Hematology
- Hospice and Palliative Medicine
- Immunology
- Infectious disease
- Interventional Radiology
- Nephrology
- Oncology
- Pulmonology
- Psychiatry
- Rheumatology
- Sleep medicine
- Sports medicine
- Transplant hepatology
Combined fellowships
There are a number of programs offering a combined fellowship, training in two or more sub-specialties as part of a single program.
- Pulmonary/Critical Care: this type of program is more common than Pulmonary Disease (non-combination) programs. As of 2007, there were 130 ACGME-accredited combined Pulmonary/Critical Care programs while only 25 programs for Pulmonary Disease alone.
- Hematology/Oncology: as of 2005, there were 125 ACGME-accredited programs for Hematology-Oncology, while only 12 programs for Hematology alone and 18 for Oncology alone.
- Geriatrics/Oncology: the American Board of Internal Medicine approved a 3-year combined fellowship training program in medical oncology and geriatrics. The John A. Hartford Foundation initially funded 10 institutions for this type of training.
See also
- Medical intern
- Medical specialty
- Physician specialty codes
- Society of General Internal Medicine
- Residency (medicine)
- Attending physician