Determining Best Practices and Content for Foundational Ambulatory GI and Hepatology Teaching During GI Fellowship

Less than 10% of adult gastroenterology (GI) fellowship is required to occur in the ambulatory, office-based, setting according to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). However, most GI fellowship graduates will spend a significant portion of their career in this setting. Training programs outside of GI have utilized multiple interventions to help bridge this educational training gap between inpatient-heavy training and outpatient-focused practice. For example, specialties such as internal medicine, pediatrics, and pulmonary and critical care have developed adaptable and widely available foundational ambulatory curricula. However, no such curriculum currently exists for GI training programs. To address this unmet need, commonly used curricular resources for GI fellowship from a variety of organizations (ABIM, ACGME, etc.) were reviewed to define a set of 32 core topics. This effort represents the first step of a needs assessment to determine the content and structure of a foundational ambulatory curriculum for GI fellowship and serves as an example of a structured and scholarly approach to advancing medical education research.