Gastroenterology Fellowship

Program Overview

The Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship Program at the Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, in affiliation with Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), trains physicians in advanced skills in pediatric gastroenterology. Our 3-year program provides comprehensive specialty training in gastroenterology (GI), hepatology and nutrition.

You’ll learn to diagnose and treat children with acute and chronic diseases of the digestive system and nutritional disorders, as well as gain broad-based research experience in basic or clinical sciences. The program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in accordance with the guidelines of the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

ON THIS PAGE:

Curriculum
Research & Training
Salary & Benefits
Location & Living
Faculty & Participants

Our Fellowship Program

The Nemours Gastroenterology Fellowship Program provides stimulating clinical training in gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition and exposure to liver transplantation. Our dynamic group of faculty clinicians and researchers are committed to helping you attain a quality education. Our fellows attend weekly educational sessions in addition to monthly pathology, radiology and physiology conferences and combined surgical rounds. Fellows also present and attend topic oriented journal clubs through out the year. Including participating in multidisciplinary meetings with our allergy, pulmonology, ENT and surgery colleagues to discuss clinical cases and evidence-based practices.

You’ll have opportunities to learn the indications, risks, benefits and techniques of performing procedures such as upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, percutaneous liver biopsy, capsule endoscopy, esophageal dilatation, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube insertions, variceal banding, pH/impedance probes and motility studies at our state-of-the-art pediatric GI endoscopy suite. You’ll learn to teach and mentor residents and medical students. You will conduct your own clinical or basic science research project under the supervision of one of our faculty members.

Training Overview

Our GI fellowship program will provide training in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Rotations include the GI inpatient service, the GI inpatient consultation service, the GI outpatient service as well as research and elective rotations. Fellows also attend their own continuity clinic a half day per week in which they will follow their own patients throughout the 3 years of fellowship. In-hospital electives include pediatric surgery, pathology and radiology. We also have an active liver transplantation program and our fellows do a month’s rotation on the liver transplant service.

Our fellows participate in and gain exposure to in-hospital committees and quality improvement projects. On a wider scope, our fellows participate in the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition fellows’ conferences in addition to other national and international meetings.

Valuable Clinical Experience

You’ll also gain valuable experience participating in the care of children who are followed in our specialty clinics such as those that focus on patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease and bowel dysfunction. Fellows will also attend liver clinic during their outpatient rotation. On their inpatient rotations, our fellows learn the intricacies of providing total parenteral nutrition as well as the management of complications that may result from this type of nutritional support.

During the on-call component, you’ll have experiences that improve several aspects of your competency-based training, including patient care, knowledge, interpersonal communications, professionalism, systems-based practice and others. You’ll work directly with emergency department staff and referring physicians doing urgent patient evaluations and other important activities.

Proficiency in GI Diagnostics and Procedures

During your training you’ll become proficient in a wide range of specialized GI diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as:

Diagnostic EGD (and biopsy)
Diagnostic colonoscopy (and biopsy)
Flexible sigmoidoscopy (and biopsy)
Ileoscopy via ileostomy (and biopsy)
Polypectomy
Hemostasis in GI bleeding
Variceal band ligation, sclerotherapy, heater probe, argon plasma coagulation
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
Liver biopsy
Dilation of esophageal strictures
Foreign body retrieval
Capsule endoscopy
Esophageal pH-multichannel impedance
Breath hydrogen testing
Pancreatic stimulation

During your second and third years, you’ll be able to choose electives that add to your knowledge in such GI-related disciplines as transplantation, pathology, radiology and surgery.

Research Support and Resources

As an integral part of your fellowship experience, you’ll receive thorough training in research as it relates to the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition. The research component will focus primarily on scholarly activities during the first year and either basic science research or clinical projects during the second and third years.

Scholarly Activities

Training in the scholarly experience begins in the first year of the fellowship and continues throughout your training. You’ll develop the full range of requisite skills for research, from project design to completion and presentation to our scholarship oversight committee, in accordance with American Board of Pediatrics certification requirements.

GI Research Lab

Our state-of-the-art GI Research Lab, located on the campus of Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware support fellow research activities. This one of kind program provides a designated research team to assist fellow research activities. The team works with fellows and their clinical mentors to support their research projects including bench work, funding core lab service, initial study designing, data analyzing and methods writing for publication.

Evaluation of PH Interferference and Accuracy of Pancreatic Enzyme Activity by Direct Pancreatic Function Testing. Jonathan Beri, Heidi Hagerott, Zhaoping He, Zarela Molle-Rios.

Active Research

Your second and third years will include more hands-on work in either basic science research or clinical projects. You’ll use knowledge gained in the first year to design and execute a study, from concept to completion and presentation, under the supervision of one of our faculty members.

Completed Research

2015: Risk factors associated with development of liver disease in obese children
Fellow: Anshu Maheshwari, MD
2015: Yield of Endoscopy in Pediatric Gastroparesis
Fellow: Tara Altepeter, MD
2016: Salivary pepsin A detection related to gastro-oesophageal reflux episodes in children undergoing impedance probe monitoring
Fellow: Hadeel Al Atrash, MD
2017: Retrospective Analysis of the correlation of fecal calprotectin in evaluating pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Fellow: Amaka Akalonu, MD
2017: Early proactive Infliximab concentration monitoring in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease leads to improved rates of clinical remission
Fellow: Arieda Gjikopulli, MD
2018: Underutilization of bowel ultrasound in North America in children with inflammatory bowel disease
Fellow: Heidi Hagerott, MD
2018: MBOAT7 gene variant rs641738 is not associated with development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease among Hispanic children with obesity
Fellow: Sana Mansoor, MD
2019: Immunohistochemistry Expression of cytokine for diagnosing Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Gastroesophageal reflux in Pediatric patients
Fellow: Shaida Nasiri-Blomgren, MD
2019: Effect of histamine 2 receptor antagonist on the microbiome of full-term infants
Fellow: Brittany Parlow, MD
2020: Comparison of the gut microbiome in children with and without obesity
Fellow: David Garcia, MD
2020: Oncostatin-M does not predict treatment response in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Fellow: Jennifer Ezirike, MD
2021: Immunostaining of OSM and OSMß Receptor in Intestinal Biopsies of Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Fellow: Jonathan Beri, MD
2021: Semiquantitative evaluation of alpha-smooth muscle actin as an early marker of pediatric liver allograft fibrosis
Fellow: Lidija Palezac, MD
2022: Immunohistochemistry Expression of Cytokines for Distinguishing Eosinophilic Esophagitis from Eosinophilia due to Inflammatory Bowel Disease. A Pilot Study
Fellow: Samantha Butzke, MD
2022: A Comparison of First-Line IV Lipid Emulsions SMOFlipid versus Intralipid on Incidence and Time to Resolution of Cholestasis in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients
Fellow: Stephanie Zacharias, MD
2023: Do Infants with GERD on Acid Suppression Medications have an Increased Risk of Developing Food Allergies and other Allergic Diseases
Fellow: Sera Na, MD
2023: Histologic Analysis of Proteins for Predicting the Development of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis in Pediatric Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Pilot Study
Fellow: Gabriele Meyer, DO<
2024: Dysregulation of mast cells and corticotropin releasing hormone receptors in duodenal tissue of individuals with functional dyspepsia
Fellow: Haley Pearlstein, DO

Clinical Trials

Precise Infliximab Exposure and Pharmacodynamic Control to Achieve Deep Remission in Pediatric Crohn’s Disease
REMODEL-CD Multicenter clinical trial ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05660746
A Phase 3 Multicenter Study to Evaluate Efficacy, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics of Upadacitinib with Open-Label Induction, Randomized, Double-Blind Maintenance and Open-Label Long-Term Extension in Pediatric Subjects with Moderately to Severely Active Crohn's Disease and Inadequate Response, Intolerance, or Medical Contraindications to Corticosteroids, Immunosuppressants, and/or Biologic Therapy. Sponsored by Abbvie.
A Phase 3 Multicenter Study to Evaluate Efficacy, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics of Upadacitinib with Open-Label Induction, Randomized, Double-Blind Maintenance and Open-Label Long- Term Extension in Pediatric Subjects with Moderately to Severely Active Ulcerative Colitis and Inadequate Response, Intolerance, or Medical Contraindications to Corticosteroids, Immunosuppressants, and/or Biologic Therapy. Sponsored by Abbvie.
2021-2023: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Odevixibat (A4250) in Children with Biliary Atresia Who Have Undergone a Kasai Hepatoportoenterostomy (BOLD).
International, Multicenter, Prospective, Industry Sponsored Study.
Site PI: Adebowale Adeyemi.
2023-Present: An Open-label Extension Study to Evaluate Long-term Efficacy and Safety of Odevixibat (A4250) in Children with Biliary Atresia (BOLD-EXT). International, Multicenter, Prospective, Industry Sponsored Study.
Site PI: Adebowale Adeyemi.

Publications

Learn More About Research at Nemours

Salary & Benefits

Salary

PGY1: $71,923
PGY2: $74,799
PGY3: $77,792
PGY 4: $80,904
PGY 5: $84,139
PGY 6: $87,505
PGY 7: $91,005
PGY 8: $94,646

Benefits

Our comprehensive benefits program allows you to choose a combination of benefits to best meet your — and your family's - needs:

Health Advocacy and Navigation Services
Medical
- Additional features in our medical plans include:
  - Coverage for assisted fertility (two cycles)
  - Maternity and child-rearing support
  - Expert second opinion program
  - Surgical centers of excellence
  - Virtual excercise therapy for back and joint pain
  - Type 2 diabetes management program
  - Nemours-funded Health Reimbursement Accounts for eligible associates

Prescription
Vision
Dental
Voluntary Accident Insurance
Voluntary Critical Illness
Voluntary Hospital Indemnity Insurance
Retirement Benefits
- 403(b) Plan
- Nemours Matching Contribution
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
Basic & Supplemental Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance
Supplemental Life Insurance
Paid Parental Leave
Short-Term Disability (STD)
Long-Term Disability (LTD)
Voluntary Long-Term Care (LTC)
Identity Theft Protection
MetLife® Legal Plan
Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Residents and fellows receive a 160-hour block of PTO during each academic year, July 1-June 30. There is no PTO carryover.
- Paid Holidays — Full-time and part-time associates receive six holidays per year. There is no waiting period for eligibility.
- Volunteer Time Off — Full-time associates who have completed the 90-day evaluation period receive eight hours of paid Volunteer Time Off (VTO) each year to use for community service activities (four hours for part-time associates).
Tuition Reimbursement
Work Life Benefits
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Financial Education
- Adoption Assistance
- Mortgage Loan Assistance Program

Wellness Benefits Include

Free fitness center membership at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, and the Home Office
Access to group fitness classes and personal training (at select locations), at an additional cost
Reduced cost fitness center membership to more than 18,000 gyms nationwide through Active&Fit Direct program
Gym/fitness app reimbursement for benefits-eligible associates
Free health coaching for benefits-eligible associates, spouses, and dependents over age 18
Wellness challenges
Reduced cost membership to WeightWatchers for benefits-eligible associates, spouses, and dependents over 18
Resources for meditation and stress management
Rewards for participating in healthy activities

About Our Hospital in Delaware

The Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware is a multispecialty, tertiary care teaching institution located on a 300-acre estate in the scenic Brandywine Valley in Wilmington, Del.

Among the hospital’s amenities for all staff are:

Free parking
Park-like setting
Gym/fitness center
On-site child care center for children of staff

Learn More About Our Children's Hospital

Living in Delaware Valley

Because of our location in the tri-state area of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, we offer unique living/working opportunities. For example, you can choose to live in the downtown Philadelphia area and easily commute to our park-like hospital campus in Wilmington.

Wilmington, Del.
Philadelphia, Pa.

Explore Wilmington

Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware is located in Wilmington, Del., about 30 minutes from center city Philadelphia, and an easy drive to Baltimore, Lancaster County, Pa. (“Amish Country”), and the beaches in Atlantic City and Delaware. There is much to do in and around the city, including mansion and garden tours, museums, breweries, wineries, fine restaurants and numerous state parks.

Learn More About Delaware:

Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau

Delaware Tourism

Delaware’s Beaches

Explore Philadelphia

Philadelphia is the sixth largest metropolitan area in the United States and offers a wealth of historical, cultural and recreational opportunities. From world-class museums to its professional sports teams to the colorful, bustling districts of South Street, Chinatown and the Italian Market, Philadelphia has something for everyone.

Learn More About the Philadelphia Area:

New Jersey Beaches

Pennsylvania Mountains

Train With Recognized Leaders

If you’re looking for a rewarding program built on academic excellence and family-centered care, Nemours Children's offers outstanding medical, surgical, pharmacy, nursing, therapy and psychology programs. Train with faculty who are respected leaders in their fields, a patient care model that stands apart and access to groundbreaking research.

Leadership
Faculty
Participants & Alumni

Meet Our Clinical Leadership

Erika M. Kutsch, DO

Director, Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship Program

Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware

Learn More About Dr. Kutsch

J. Fernando del Rosario, MD

Division Chief, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology

Department of Pediatrics, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware

Learn More About Dr. del Rosario

Meet Our Program Faculty

Research Scientist

Zhaoping He, PhD — Associate Research Scientist/GI Research Lab Scientific Director

Meet Our Participants

Current Participants

3rd Year

Erica Lardieri, DO

2nd Year

Heemali Kamdar, DO
Cayanne Liew, DO

1st Year

Shumaila Ather, MD
Krystal Ealy, MD

Alumni

2024: Haley Pearlstein, MD
2023: Gabriele Meyer, MD; Sera Na, MD
2022: Samantha Butzke, MD; Stephanie Zacharias, MD
2021 Jonathan Beri, MD; Lidija Palezac, MD
2020 David Garcia, MD; Jennifer Ezirike, MD
2019: Shaida Nasiri, MD; Brittany Parlow, MD
2018: Heidi Hagerott, MD; Sana Mansoor, MD
2017: Arieda Gjikopulli, MD; Amaka Akalonu, MD
2016: Hadeel Al-Atrash, MD; Vikas Uppal, MD
2015: Tara Altepeter, MD; Anshu Maheshwar, MD
2014: Sheela Raikar, MD
2013: Jennifer Jimenez, MD
2012: Erika Kutsch, DO
2011: Beth Loveridge-Lenza, MD
2010: Nikki Allmendinger, MD; Prateek Wali, MD
2009: Alycia Leiby, MD
2008: Jeremy King, MD

Apply Today

Application Requirements

Accreditation ID: 3324112058

Accepting Applications: July 3 through September 1, 2024

Training Begins: July 1, 2025

1. Submit application electronically using ERAS

2. Curriculum vitae

3. Personal statement

4. Medical school transcript

5. USMLE scores (all 3 levels)

6. Three references

Interviews

We begin offering interviews to fellowship candidates in July of the year before the start of the fellowship. The actual interview process will take place roughly between August 1 and October 1 of the preceding year.

Questions About Applying?

April Aguilera
Fellowship Coordinator
(302) 577-0319
april.aguilera@nemours.org

Erika M. Kutsch, DO
Program Director
(302) 651-5928
erika.kutsch@nemours.org

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