Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship

The Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is a rigorous, three-year, ACGME-accredited program designed to prepare physicians for board eligibility while fostering excellence in clinical care and scholarly inquiry. The program is led by Dr. Thomas Wallach (Program Director and Division Chief) and consists of 4 full time and four part time faculty members (including a psychologist and transplant hepatologist), split between SUNY Downstate and Kings County Medical Center. Training occurs primarily at University Hospital at Downstate and Kings County Medical Center, providing exposure to a highly diverse urban patient population and a wide spectrum of complex gastrointestinal and hepatological conditions. With a partnership with NYU Pediatric GI, we additionally can offer Liver transplant experience, including active service time with the NYU transplant team and mentored hepatology experiences in Brooklyn.

The curriculum is structured to provide a foundation of intensive clinical training during the first year, followed by two years in which a minimum of 75% of a fellow's time is protected for research and scholarly activities. There are no attending-only endoscopy days, meaning all procedures are completed with a trainee, and we have consistently readily met NASPGHAN procedural training goals.

Research is a cornerstone of the program, with program leadership prioritizing research training and opportunities, resulting in fellows averaging three publications during their tenure. Our program is engaged in multiple individual and collaborative research programs, with strong relationships with the SUNY Downstate School of Public Health, where they can pursue an Advanced Certificate in Public Health or an MPH. Current research foci include an active R01 studying maternal-child health and milk production in the context of culturally appropriate supplements, R01 funded work investigating precision targeted infliximab therapy in pediatric CD, RNA sequencing driven metabolomic modeling of IBD, persistent SARS-CoV2 infection, clinical and biochemical outcomes of master regulators of inflammatory signaling such as GLP1 agonists and dupilumab, and a novel research training methodology titled “experience based research” which puts trainee interests and goals at the center of the research training project, using pre-existing datasets to jump start training in clinical and translational research. Fellows also have access to an AI/ML lab core and supercomputing resources, supporting advanced data analysis in areas like health disparities and global health, with active projects reaching as far as Lusaka and Karachi. The program’s intensive focus on this effort has resulted in multiple years setting records for abstracts at NASPGHAN.

Additionally, our program and institution are focused on questions of health equity. To support this, SUNY Downstate offers unique resources including the only dedicated IBD center in Brooklyn, featuring specialized IBD ultrasound and infusion services, and the only academically integrated inpatient pediatric feeding unit on the East Coast. We regularly participate in physician training and education in the community, and opportunities to grow and develop in a career targeted towards improving equity in outcomes in any context will be well supported, with a myriad of opportunities. The educational experience is supported by a robust didactic schedule of approximately 180 annual conferences, including core curriculum lectures, joint pathology and radiology sessions, and guest seminars. Our program also features a consistent 100% board passage rate.