Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) Fellowship

Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) Fellowship

The fellow is appointed as a junior faculty member (Clinical Instructor in Urology) and will have appropriate responsibilities to help staff cases at Keck Hospital of USC, Los Angeles General Medical Center and Rancho Los Amigos. The fellow is also expected to contribute academically through participation in teaching rounds and through involvement in a variety of clinical research projects that are available.

Candidates for this fellowship should be eligible for licensure in California and should have completed a minimum of 2 years in an ACGME accredited training program.

Tips for Applicants:

• Candidates apply in their penultimate year of residency through ERAS (December cycle)
• ACGME Program Number: 4860548003
• We require 3 letters of recommendation, and one must come from your residency Program Director or Chair
• Please try to submit all application materials by January 31^st of the current application cycle.

Objectives

Educational Objectives of the Program

The educational objectives of the USC- Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) program align with the six ACGME competencies. These goals are to improve the health care of women by:

1. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement-Providing high standards of education and training related to Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery;
2. Patient Care and Procedural Skills & Interpersonal and Communications Skills-Improving the recruitment of qualified physicians to this subspecialty and encouraging the development of academicians as well as clinicians who are able to provide consultation and comprehensive management of women with complete benign pelvic conditions, lower urinary tract disorders and pelvic floor dysfunction;
3. Medical Knowledge- Providing basic science and clinical knowledge regarding female pelvic disorders;
4. System-based Practice-Obtaining the understanding of the basic role of a physician in a healthcare organization by improving the organization, distribution and cost-effectiveness of patient care;
5. System-based Practice and Professionalism-Establishing collaboration between urology, gynecologists, colorectal surgeons, and other sub-specialties, including cross-dissemination of clinical experience, research, and teaching.

The primary goal of the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at USC is to train surgeon scientist by providing fellows with advanced training in both the diagnosis and the medical and surgical treatment of voiding dysfunction and other pelvic floor conditions as well as providing fellows with the necessary training in clinical and/or basic science research in disorders that affect the pelvic floor to become independent investigators. The training will provide an in-depth experience in clinical and investigative work sufficient to allow pursuit of an academic career within Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. Fellows will obtain an intensive, comprehensive and ongoing clinical and laboratory research experience in related aspects of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at USC Urology, an institution not only recognized as a national and international referral center for clinical care, but also respected in research.

Research Educational Objectives of the FPMRS Program

The overall educational goal of the USC Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) program at the University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center are to improve the health care of women. As stated in the program’s objectives, we aim at improving the recruitment of qualified physicians to this subspecialty and developing academicians ready to lead the future direction of FPMRS as a specialty and help discover new diagnostic, preventive and treatment strategies to better serve and improve the overall health care of women with pelvic floor disorders. As part of that overarching goal, we aim at training clinical and translational scientists who will, after completion of this fellowship, equipped to lay the ground to new discoveries. As such, the fellows will be required to complete 12 months of research training and complete a research thesis. The thesis will be evaluated and graded by a group of investigators as previously described. Thus the objectives of the research year include:

1. Providing basic science and clinical and translational knowledge and understanding regarding female pelvic disorders;
2. Understanding the research agendas of national and international organizations as they relate to issues of women’s health and pelvic disorders (NIH and its institutes, AUGS, AUA, ABOG, ICS, IUGA, SUFU, etc.);
3. Learn how to develop a hypothesis;
4. Learn how to distinguished the types, strengths and benefits of different study designs and how to choose the appropriate design to address a particular hypothesis;
5. Understand the basic statistical analysis and how they apply to particular data sets;
6. To learn how to determine power calculations and select study populations;
7. To understand the basics of basic research and how in vitro and animal studies help us develop and tests hypotheses that cannot be adequately tested in patient populations;
8. To understand the basics of laboratory management of resources and personnel, i) to critically understand published research studies;
9. To understand the basics of grant writing and funding.