About the Program

Welcome to the GI Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. We have a long tradition of training the future academic leaders of gastroenterology and hepatology. We are proud to strengthen and continue this mission.

Our program has an impressive historic past, dating back to the 1930s, when it was founded by the world renowned hepatologist Dr. Leon Schiff. Dr. Schiff is considered by many to be the Father of modern day Hepatology. We continue this strong tradition by educating and training those who will become the next generation of academic physician leaders.

WE WELCOME ALL OF YOU TO LEARN ABOUT OUR PROGRAM!

Program Director’s Philosophy

• My mission is to ensure that you are trained to be consummate professionals clinically, endoscopically, and academically and that your primary focus is on the highest quality care to your patients. 
• I am an academic clinical educator. I have been entrusted to guide your careers as you grow to be future gastroenterologists and hepatologists. My training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York, have afforded me a strong academic background to continue the tenants of outstanding medicine going forward. I have been associated with the University of Cincinnati for 30 years. At the beginning of my career, I was the Director of Endoscopy at the University of Cincinnati. Over last thirty years I developed and lead a large Practice of Gastroenterologists in Cincinnati area before returning to my academic foundation in 2015. The role of fellowship program director allows me to continue the joy and satisfaction in teaching and mentoring young clinicians. It is an honor and privilege for me to serve as the Program Director.
• I want your education to be expansive, creative, challenging and honest work. I want it to be fun! Your Fellowship is an important part of your training and I want it to be memorable and meaningful.
• I want your learning environment to be personalized, respectful, balanced and fair.

Our Program Philosophy

• We have a long tradition of training academic scholars and a high percentage of our Fellowship graduates go on to prestigious leadership positions in gastroenterology and hepatology.
• We believe that hands-on supervised clinical experience gets the best results. This builds confident physicians who are qualified to provide the professional consultative skills and the procedural skills required of a successful gastroenterologist, whether in an academic environment or in clinical practice.
• Gastroenterology is an evolving discipline and our program is committed to meeting the challenges of modern-day gastroenterology. We hope to provide continuous improvement in your educational experience and to provide the most innovative care to our patients. Evaluation of our academic program and patient care practices are continuously reviewed and improved in a 360-degree fashion.
• We believe in educating you with an open and honest mind and heart. You will be asked to frankly share your experiences here. We, in turn, will always be open and transparent about your progress and performance. You can only grow into a great gastroenterologist with open and honest teaching and feedback.
• Each trainee is an individual and has unique needs in their learning and goals. We hope to meet, even exceed, your needs and to allow enough flexibility within the overall framework of the training program to see that your educational and professional goals are achieved.
• Our program seeks to be inclusive to all geographic, racial, religious, gender and ethnic groups. To be inclusive is to allow growth, exposure and creativity. We feel that we can provide a more comprehensive and dynamic learning environment when diversity is supported.

Fellowship Goals

The GI fellowship strives to train gastroenterologists and hepatologists who will maintain life-long scholarly interests in the pathogenesis and treatment of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary disorders.

Our trainees acquire clinical competence in all aspects of gastroenterology and hepatology. Specifically, the program imparts fellows with the expertise to provide patients with high-quality, compassionate, and cost-effective care, to perform a broad range of endoscopic procedures, and to conduct research in various aspects of gastroenterology and hepatology. Fellows with an interest in academic gastroenterology, including basic laboratory research or clinical research are included within the structure of the fellowship program.

We have formulated a three-year curriculum that emphasizes the strengths of our faculty and patient populations. Fellows develop substantial experience in the clinical management and treatment of a wide spectrum of digestive diseases through the provision of direct care to patients in both hospital and ambulatory settings. During the third year of training, fellows have the opportunity to develop a clinical focus in such areas as inflammatory bowel disease, nutrition, liver disease, pancreaticobiliary disorders, and therapeutic interventional endoscopy. In addition, our Program participates in the AASLD Transplant Hepatology program in their third year of training, this provides trainees the opportunity to obtain dual board certification in three years.

We also have an advanced endoscopy fellowship offered after three years of a GI fellowship.  If someone is interested in transplant hepatology, they can choose to do it as a fourth year of training.

A message from Dr. Bongiovanni.