Clinical Training
As a fellow in the Endocrine Surgery Fellowship, you will gain extensive exposure to standard and advanced/minimally invasive techniques in endocrine surgery, medical endocrinology, pathology, ultrasonography, and laryngoscopy.
Specifically, you will be exposed to:
- Benign and malignant thyroid disease (280 projected cases)
- Advanced thyroid cancer operations, including redo operations, substernal goiters etc
- Parathyroidectomy and minimally invasive techniques, including MIP under local analgesia, radio-guided surgery, re-operative surgery (180 projected cases)
- Central and lateral neck dissections (30+ projected cases)
- Laparoscopic and robotic adrenalectomy (40–60 projected cases)
- Robotic thyroidectomy
- Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas
Fellows have the opportunity to perform surgeon-directed ultrasound for patients with thyroid and parathyroid diseases, laryngeal ultrasound, and to perform ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirations (FNAs) with the endocrinology or cytopathology attending. Each week, we have integrated exposure to ultrasonography and cytopathology to show the fellow how to incorporate these adjuncts into the daily life and practice of an endocrine surgeon.
The fellowship includes a dedicated time in an affiliated specialty, including thyroidology and endocrinology, bone disease and calcium metabolism, radiology, pathology, and voice disorders, as well as a clinical experience at Duke Raleigh Hospital with Dr. Michael Stang.
Conducting Clinics
As a fellow in the Endocrine Surgery Fellowship, you will have weekly outpatient clinics with an attending mentor. These multidisciplinary clinics are conducted in conjunction with medical endocrinology and cytopathology.
Presenting Cases
We expect fellows to present at least four multidisiplinary and tumor board conferences on a topic of interest in endocrine disease or surgery. Depending on the your interests, you have the opportunity to participate in the multidisciplinary Hepato-Pancreatic-Biliary tumor board and the Hereditary Conference Group, which deals with hereditary tumors and disorders.
Research Training
The Endocrine Surgery Fellowship incorporates opportunities for clinical, translational, and health services research for academic advancement. Fellows have on average one day each week reserved for non-operative endeavors, including research.
A robust endocrine surgery research program provides outstanding opportunities for a fellow to establish his or her academic career. The program offers fellows exposure to multi-institutional clinical trials of novel chemotherapy agents for advanced thyroid cancers.
As part of their training, we expect fellows to be actively engaged in clinical research through the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program (CESQIP). Involvement in CESQIP allows fellows to engage in multi-institutional collaborations, which they would hopefully carry forward after completion of the program.
Our research group is supported by the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI), the Department of Surgery, and others. The support comes in the form of discretionary funds and personnel to help maintain a robust clinical trials program and database.