Faculty: Steedman Sarbah, M.D. - Course Director

Location: Columbia, South Carolina

Duration: 4 weeks

Course Offered: Throughout academic year

Number of Students: 1 per rotation

Students Report To: DVAMC, G.I. Endoscopy Lab, 2nd Floor,     8:00 a.m.    phone 776-4000 ext. 7152  fax: 695-7977

The goal of this rotation is to enhance the student's ability to recognize, evaluate, and treat patients with digestive diseases, diseases of the hepatobiliary system, and disorders of nutrition. To accomplish this goal, the student will perform the initial evaluation on consults submitted to the gastroenterology (GI) service. Consults will be presented and the pertinent radiographic and histologic data reviewed on daily attending rounds. Experience with outpatient care of patients with digestive disease will be gained during a weekly outpatient clinic. The student will also care for a limited number (1-2) of patients with gastroenterologic disease on the inpatient service. Observation of procedures performed on the student's consults is encouraged. Increased knowledge of digestive diseases will be gained through in-depth reading in pertinent textbooks and the current medical literature as well as interaction with staff personnel. The student is required to attend all conferences, i.e., GI radiology, GI pathology, Endoscopy Conference, topic review, and journal review. If the student is interested in research, he/she will have the opportunity to observe the performance of various clinical research studies.

This elective will include 2 weeks at PHR and 2 weeks at the DVAMC. Each student is expected to call the course director’s office one week prior to starting the elective for assignment either to PHR or DVAMC.