Abstracts from Around the World

Last year, our societies created a 9 member task force to evaluate the current gastroenterology training model and to make appropriate recommendations. The rationale for revisiting our current training practice was the emergence of certification in transplant hepatology and the perception that the current curriculum may not adequately prepare trainees for other focused practices, like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or oncology. A number of important recommendations were proffered. The task force did not support separate training and certification in hepatology distinct from gastroenterology. However, recommendation was given to provide a model for focused recognition in transplant hepatology, which could be acquired during the 36 months of fellowship training. Overall, the task force felt that training in focused areas of practice, such as motility, oncology, IBD, and endoscopy, could be obtained during the final 18 months of fellowship training. Regarding research, fellows should devote 6 months of their training to some type of research, though there was agreement that time devoted to research for those considering a community practice might be better spent in other relevant scholarly activities. More than 6 months of training and research, of course, would be required of those wishing to become fully fledged researchers. Lastly, considering the current climate, the revision of the gastroenterology core curriculum as a competency-based document was recommended.