The Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery Fellowship is a two year fellowship geared to incorporate both research and surgical skills to train aspiring urologists for an academic endourology career. The fellowship has received accreditation from the Endourological Society, the international governing body for endourologic training. The fellow is responsible for coverage of all minimally invasive urologic surgical procedures (percutaneous renal surgery, endourology, laparoscopy, and robotics) cases on his/her operating room days. The fellow may be asked to interact with our residents during certain cases, but as "teaching faculty". The fellow will have 1 day per week for designated research activity. The fellow will participate in seeing patients with stone disease and urologic disease processes amenable to endourologic care in our clinic. The fellow must have at least one laboratory project and submit a competitive manuscript to the Journal of Endourology essay contest by the end of the fellowship period. The fellow will not take resident call, but may have junior faculty status and take limited staff call. The fellow is encouraged to apply for an American Foundation of Urologic Disease (AFUD) scholarship as part of his/her fellowship year. I. SCOPE OF TRAINING Specialized training in minimally invasive urologic surgery will cover all aspects of endourologic surgery at the Rhode Island and Miriam Hospitals - including: minimally invasive urologic surgery of the lower and upper tracts, image guided therapy for urolithiasis and tumors, and various laparoscopic and robotic procedures. The subspecialty training in minimally invasive urologic surgery will provide an experience of sufficient level for the trainee to acquire advanced skills in each of these areas. The fellow will work with current residents in the Brown University Urology program. The fellow may staff cases deemed appropriate by the program director as a junior faculty for current Brown urology residents. A foundation in minimally invasive urologic research will be developed, either basic science or clinical. This will lead to the presentation of the fellow's work at national and international meetings and publication in a peer reviewed journal. II. QUALIFICATION OF THE APPLICANT The applicant will have completed an ACGME approved residency in urology and be eligible to sit for part I of the American Board of Urology qualifying examination. Urologists who have passed part I of the American Board of Urology Qualifying Examination and are licensed to practice medicine in the United States are also eligible for consideration in the program. III. DURATION OF TRAINING The fellowship will be two years with equal distribution of research and clinical activity. IV. INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS The institution will have adequate research facilities and in the presence of one or more Ph.D.'s within the urologic training program or through the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, or through Brown University. There will be an active and productive minimally invasive urologic surgery research component which can qualify for extramural funding. The ongoing research will include outcomes research, technology development, ongoing animal research protocols and baseic science research through collaboration with departments within Brown University. V. FACILITIES Diagnostic facilities will include state-of-the-art radiologic, ultrasound, MRI, endoscopic, laparoscopic, robotic, computerized tomography scanning and urodynamic equipment suitable for the care of endourologic patients. Research facilities will be available in order to fulfill the required scholarly pursuit of the fellow. VI. EDUCATION PROGRAM The clinical status of a fellow is at a junior staff member. The fellow will have graded surgical responsibility and will be responsible progressively for more and more of the operative care of individual cases. The fellow will also be responsible for preparation of teaching conferences for residents and staff. In addition, the fellow will participate in teaching residents and medical students. The fellowship will be structured such that in the first academic year, focus will be primarily on endourologic and percutaneous cases. The second academic year, focus will be on laparoscopic and robotic procedures and approaches to management of urologic diseases. The fellow will have protected research time 1 day a week and clinical responsibilities the remaining 4 days of the week. The fellow will submit a paper to the annual essay contest of the Endourological Society. The education program will provide clinical experience sufficient to develop clinical competence in minimally invasive urologic surgery. The clinical component of the program will provide the following area: A. Minimum numbers for index cases include: Total Percutaneous Renal Procedures: 45 cases Total Ureteroscopy: 60 cases Total Laparoscopy: 60 cases Total Robotics: 50 cases Fellows will also report the number of new technology cases (e.g. SWL / needle ablative therapy / etc.) done over the past year as well as time spent in research activities.

2009-06-01