Gastroenterology

General Overview

The Carolinas Medical Center Gastroenterology Fellowship is an ACGME-approved, three-year, flexible program designed to train board eligible/certified internal medicine specialists in the field of clinical gastroenterology and hepatology. The program will fund two fellows per year for a total of six fellows.

The program curriculum adheres to the principles and guidelines defined by the ACGME and the national gastroenterology organizations including the AGA, ASGE, ACG and AASLD. The primary objective is to train excellent clinicians in gastroenterology and hepatology in an environment that fosters thoughtfulness and a scholarly approach to the understanding and treatment of basic disorders of the digestive tract and liver. Given the number of diverse career choices for gastroenterologists and hepatologists, the secondary objective is to provide a flexible environment that allows fellows to tailor their third year of training to their specific needs.

Fellows receive intensive clinical experience for at least eighteen months during the program with at least six of those months focusing on hepatology. There is six months of protected time for an individualized research experience over the three years of training. The third year focuses on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), motility disorders and testing, pancreatico-biliary disease and an out-patient experience at the Charlotte VA. Additional training in hepatology, motility, nutrition or IBD and/or research time are also available depending on an individual fellow’s preferences and needs.

A basic breakdown of activities by year is as follows:

Year 1:

4 months general gastroenterology in-patient service; 3 months hepatology service which includes outpatient clinics; 2 months outpatient endoscopy service and research time; 1 month pancreato-biliary disease; 1 month of outpatient experience in motility; 1 month of outpatient experience in IBD; and general gastroenterology continuity clinic ½ day per week.

Year 2:

2 months in-patient gastroenterology service; 2 months hepatology service which includes outpatient clinics; 2 months of outpatient experience in motility; 2 months of outpatient experience in IBD; 2 months pancreato-biliary disease; 2 months outpatient endoscopy service and research time; general gastroenterology continuity clinic ½ day per week; 4 months of experience in reading wireless capsule endoscopy during other rotations.

Year 3:

3 months pancreato-biliary disease; 3 months of outpatient experience in IBD; 3 months of outpatient experience in motility; 2 months outpatient endoscopy service and research time; 1 month hepatology service which includes outpatient clinics; VA out-patient procedures; general gastroenterology continuity clinic ½ day per week. There is some flexibility in outpatient rotations for electives and additional research time.

During the course of training, fellows will participate in a weekly GI Grand Rounds to review the literature on difficult management cases, a weekly Core Curriculum Conference to review important content in gastroenterology and hepatology, a monthly Journal Club, a monthly Research Conference, monthly Foregut Conference, weekly IBD conferences, weekly hepatology conferences, and periodic Pathology and GI Board Review conferences. Fellows will have the opportunity to attend at least one national gastroenterology or hepatology conference per year. Fellows have access to free biostatistics support from the Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation and to the clinical data warehouse for their projects. To support their educational activities, fellows have an annual CME stipend.

Please click here for Salary and Benefits information.

If interested in the Gastroenterology Fellowship, please call 704-355-7479.

Faculty

	Steven Zacks, MD, MPH, FRCPC Dr. Zacks is the Program Director and received his medicine degree from the University of Toronto, completed his gastroenterology fellowship at SUNY Buffalo, and completed his transplant hepatology fellowship at UNC at Chapel Hill. Areas of interest: Fatty Liver Disease, Viral Hepatitis, Cirrhosis, Liver Cancer, and Liver Transplantation.
	Jennifer Wellington, DO, MSc Dr.Wellington is the Assistant Program Director and received her medical degree from Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Maryland. Areas of interest: Motility disorders of the luminal GI tract, functional bowel disorders/disorders of gut-brain interaction.
	Paris Charilaou, MD Dr. Charilaou received his medical degree from the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague, Czechia and completed his Gastroenterology fellowship at Rutgers/Saint Peter’s University Hospital. He then completed an Advanced IBD Fellowship at NewYork Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine. Areas of interest: Areas of interest: IBD, outcomes research and designing machine learning-driven models for clinical outcome predictions in IBD patients.
	Shailendra Singh Chauhan, MD, AGAF, FASGE Dr. Chauhan received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and completed his Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at St. Luke’s Pancreatic and Biliary Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Areas of interest: Interventional endoscopy, ERCP, EUD, GI stenting, enteroscopy, EMR, ESD, endoscopy in surgically altered anatomy, acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cysts and gastrointestinal malignancies.
	Maithili Chitnavis, MD, FACG Dr. Chitnavis is a faculty member who completed her medicla degree at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine/Medical College of Virginia, her internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt University, and her Gastroenterolgy fellowship at the University of Virginia Areas of interest: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis Research interests: Outcomes research, clinical trials
	Andrew deLemos, MD Dr. deLemos received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his gastroenterology fellowship and advanced hepatology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Areas of interest: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis and liver transplantation.
	Andrew M. Dries, MD Dr. Dries is the Program Director of the 4th Year Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship, received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and completed his gastroenterology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Areas of interest: Endoscopic ultrasound and therapeutic pancreatic-biliary endoscopy.
	Jason Lewis, MD Dr. Lewis received his medical degree from SUNY, Syracuse. He completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Michigan and his advanced endoscopic fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. Areas of interest: Endoscopic ultrasound, therapeutic pancreatic-biliary endoscopy and enteral stenting for benign and malignant GI disease.
	Nilesh Lodhia, MD Dr. Lodhia received his medical degree from Wake Forest University. He completed his Gastroenterology Fellowship at the University of Tennessee and his IBD Fellowship at the University of Chicago. Areas of interest: Inflammatory bowel disease and endoscopy.
	Baharak Moshiree, MD, MSc, AGAF, FACG Dr. Moshiree received her medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Dr. Moshiree is the Governor for ACG in North Carolina and the Directory of Motility at Carolinas Medical Center. Additionally, Dr. Moshiree received the Preceptor of the Year Award for 2020. Areas of interest: Motility disorders (gastroparesis and slow transit constipation), pelvic floor disorders and disorders of gut-brain dysfunction (Irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia).
	Mark W. Russo, MD, MPH Dr. Russo received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his gastroenterology and transplant hepatology fellowships at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Russo is the Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at Carolinas Medical Center. Areas of interest: Liver transplantation; drug induced liver disease, fatty liver disease and the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis. See more information about the Transplant Hepatology Fellowship
	Paul Schmeltzer, MD Dr. Schmeltzer received his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his gastroenterology fellowship training at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He then completed a transplant hepatology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic Rochester. Areas of interest: Viral hepatitis, drug-induced liver injury, and hepatobiliary malignancy.
	Richard L Sigmon, MD Dr. Sigmon received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also completed his gastroenterology fellowship. Areas of interest: General gastroenterology, IBD.
	Elyse R. Thakur, PhD Dr. Thakur, a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating gastrointestinal disorders, received her PhD from Wayne State University and completed her pre-doctoral internship at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship through the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (MIRECC) VA Advanced Fellowship Program at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine. Areas of interest: Disorders of gut-brain interaction, motility disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases, GI-related anxiety and depression.
	Philippe Zamor, MD Dr. Zamor received his medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his gastroenterology fellowship training at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and his transplant hepatology training at the Columbia University Medical Center. Areas of interest: treatment of hepatitis C, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver transplantation.
Part-Time Faculty
	Martin W. Scobey, MD, FACP, AGAF Dr. Scobey received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee and completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the Wake Forest University. He joined the faculty of Carolinas Medical Center in 2007 to serve as the Chief of Gastroenterology in the Department of Internal Medicine. Areas of interest: General gastroenterology, esophageal motility disorders and inflammatory bowel disease.
	Robert Yavorski, MD Dr. Yavorski graduated from Tulane University School of medicine and completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Areas of interest: General gastroenterology and fellow endoscopic teaching.